UK towns and cities could lose nearly 400,000 jobs and up to 40 percent of their retail offerings as consumers shift to online shopping due to the impact of the pandemic, a new KPMG research report reveals. “Online sales have grown by 50 [percent plus] in nine months, accelerating a trend that would have taken five years plus to deliver in normal circumstances,” Paul Martin, head of retail at KPMG in the UK, said in the report published on Thursday. Forty to 50 percent of all non-essential retailing is expected to shift online going forward, an increase from 30 percent before the pandemic. This accelerated rise in online shopping could affect up to 5 percent of the local labour force. Basingstoke, Bracknell, and Guildford have been identified as the most severely impacted areas and with the highest risk of job losses. Up to 2,602 jobs could be affected in Basingstoke, representing …