Retail sales fell by 1.9 per cent month-on-month in February, official figures show.
The data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the continuing economic downturn and the heavy snowfall last month were to blame for the decrease since January.
Overall sales growth slowed to 0.4 per cent in February, the smallest increase since September 1995.
A number of high street chains, including Next said revenue and profit had declined despite price cuts. H&M, meanwhile, reported a 12.6 per cent drop in quarterly profit.
The BBC quote Vicky Redwood from Capital Economics as saying: "February's sharp drop in the official measure of retail sales ends the recent puzzlingly strong run of figures and supports the message from the more timely surveys that High Street spending growth is back on a downward trend."
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