ACS

Rising petrol prices mean that fewer and fewer people are making trips to out-of-town retail parks and doing more of their shopping on the Internet, according to the latest retail trends survey from Experian.

The data also shows a steep rise in retail business failures in the three months ended May.

"The reduction in visits to out-of-town centres is having a significant impact on retail sales," said Jonathan de Mello, Experian's director of retail consultancy.

"People generally drive to out-of-town destinations with a specific large purchase in mind and there is far less browsing than is the case in town centres."

Experian said its monthly footfall index showed shopper numbers fell 2.6 percent in June from the same month last year, and were down 5.8 percent to out-of-town destinations.

UK Internet traffic to retail websites, in contrast, was up 6.5 percent on the year, with increasingly price-conscious shoppers searching for "sales" at the highest rate since Christmas.

Experian said there were 282 non-food retail bankruptcies in the three months ended May, up almost 25 percent on the year and suggesting a "dramatic acceleration" in business failures.

While out-of-town stores suffer, the number of people visiting retailers' websites continues to grow. UK retailers saw a 6.5pc increase in web traffic in June compared with the same period last year.

There is also evidence that consumers are looking for bargains with discount outlets showing a rise in sales for the first half of this year.