Retail sales in the 19 eurozone countries fell by 0.2% in September, statistics agency Eurostat reported on Monday.
The drop was due to fewer purchases being made of non-food products, such as clothing, electrical goods, furniture, computer equipment and books.
People in the euro bloc also reduced the amount of petrol they bought in the month, but they did spend more on food and drinks.
Consumers in Portugal were the most reluctant spenders in all the 19 countries. Sales dropped by 2.1% in September, although this followed three consecutive months of greater spending during the summer from June through August.
But even though spending decreased this September it was still considerably more (a 2.6% increase) than they spent in September 2015.
In fact, every one of the last six months of 2016 has shown a determined rise in consumer spending over the same months last year.
