Scottish retailers were hit by the double whammy of an early Easter and unseasonably cold weather last month as total sales declined by 2.1%.
The latest SRC-KPMG Scottish retail sales monitor showed a 2.7% decline in non-food items and a 1.4% drop in grocery sales during April compared with the same month last year.
On a like-for-like basis, which strips out new store openings, the figures were worse, with a total decline of 3% with non-food down 3.3%, and food taking a 2.7% hit.
David McCorquodale, head of retail at KPMG, said: “April’s figures provide a dose of realism to remind us how tough the retail environment remains in Scotland.
“On the back of the strongest first quarter to a year since 2011, the latest drop in sales is disappointing.
“However, it is worthwhile noting the clear distortion caused by this year’s early Easter, which boosted March’s figures and suppressed April’s relative to the same time last year.
“Considering performance on a three-month rolling basis to account for this Easter discrepancy, total food sales actually increased by 2.2%, roughly in line with the rest of the UK.”
The Scottish Retail Consortium director Fiona Moriarty said the results were very disappointing but there were mitigating factors.
She said: “It is not as bad as it looks. If you strip out the Easter distortions, April sales growth was actually a slight improvement on March, and the overall three-month average is still marginally up on the same period in 2012.
“The figures don’t yet reflect it, but we’re seeing very tentative signs that the mood is starting to lift, especially consumer confidence, which has crept above the UK average for the first time since September.
“Retailers will be hoping that bank holidays and warmer weather in May will return a better set of results and boost this fairly subdued three- month average into more positive territory,” she added.