Internet
Summer Olympics Weaken Online Sales in August
According to the latest figures from the British shoppers spent £5.8bn online in August, a year-on-year growth of 11%, but dropping 11% on July.
While a decline between July and August is typical (-6% in 2011 and -8% in 2010) with the start of the Autumn school term, the decline was particularly significant this year, however, with the Olympics distracting regular online shoppers. Despite the disappointing performance, and in contrast to the wider retail sector, e-commerce is growing - the year to date Index has grown 13%, as per earlier forecasts for the year.
It seems the country's determination to cheer on team GB's heroes affected most of the sectors in August. Despite what has been a very solid year-on-year performance over the last four months, growth in the Electrical sector fell to just 11% and reported a month-on-month decline of 2%. The sector peaked in the run up to the Olympics at the end of July when sales of high definition televisions and SLR cameras spiked as part of the nation gearing up for the games, but once the likes of Mo Farah , Jess Ennis and Ellie Simmonds took to the stage, sales came to an abrupt slowdown.
Clothing also struggled last month. Despite the arrival of autumn-winter ranges and the late summer sales , the sector failed to draw many takers, recording growth of only 11% year-on-year and dipping 18% on July last month.
The Travel sector saw an annual growth of 9% and dropped 7% month-on-month. While this decline could be attributed to the Olympics and the desire to stay at home to watch the Games, with school holidays coming to an end, this dip is quite typical for the season.
In contrast to the overall Index results, Gifts and Health & Beauty grew 41% and 25% year on year, respectively.
M-commerce sales, shopping via mobile/handheld devices, continued to perform particularly well in August, with the m-Retail Index reporting a growth of 294% on the same time last year and up 280% year-on-year, excluding travel sales. As with the e-Retail Index, the conversion rate , i.e. the actual sales which materialised out of website surfing, improved marginally proving that shoppers were more focused in their browsing and made less ineffective visits online.
Year-on-year growth of online-only retailers continues to exceed that of multichannel retailers, growing 15% year-on-year as compared to the 8% growth of their multichannel counterparts. In the last three months online-only retailers have been growing by an average of 6% year-on-year more than multichannel retailers.
head of retail consulting and technology, said: "It is very common for
"Mobile commerce, although slowed slightly last month, continues to grow at a healthy pace. This will be a particularly important channel for retailers this winter, as many more shoppers will be making the most of the developments in mobile technology for their Christmas shopping."
Chief Information Officer, , comments
"While sales via mobile devices also recorded lower annual growth than seen in recent months, the m-Retail Index also reveals that the average spend via mobile devices was the lowest recorded during 2012. However, sales via mobile devices have grown a staggering 320% year-to-date compared with the same period in 2011 and by the end of this year we expect m-retail to account for around 20% of online sales in the UK".
Industry Quotes
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Notes to Editors
About IMRG
IMRG (Interactive Media In Retail Group) is the UK's industry association for e-retail. Formed in 1990, IMRG is setting and maintaining pragmatic and robust e-Retail Standards to enable fast-track industry growth, and facilitates its community of members with practical help, information, tools, guidance and networking. Consumers can be confident when dealing with IMRG Members because all have committed to operate using methods that are Honest, Decent, Legal, Truthful and Fair, and have undertaken to not bring the industry into disrepute. The strength of IMRG is the collective and co-operative power of its members.
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About the 'IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index'
The IMRG Capgemini Index, which was started in April 2000 , tracks 'online sales', which we define as 'transactions completed fully, including payment, via interactive channels' from any location, including in-store. These sales are predominantly internet-based today, but the Index remains ready to record e-retail sales conducted via whatever interactive channels the market may embrace in the future.
Index Participants
Around one hundred e-retailers now regularly contribute data to the IMRG Capgemini Index, including
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