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Online retail at 6.9% of high street
Some £4.5bn was spent online in March, according to figures from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index, a rise of 15% from the same time last year. The rise came as warm weather inspired people to shop for new clothes, where retailers saw a 27% rise in sales. Footwear and accessories were the fastest growing areas of the market, with rises of 58% and 55% respectively.
The figures contrast with today’s UK retail figures from the Office for National Statistics, which showed the value of total UK retail sales in March was up by 4.4% to an estimated £29.9bn. Food stores grew by 1.2%, while non-food stores were up by 6.7%. Clothing and footwear grew by 2.8%.
Two other stand-out stats:
- John Lewis said johnlewis.com sales were up by 48% on last year, while fashion sales more than doubled. Shopping.com said its home and garden sales rose by 51%.
- Shoppers with a multichannel strategy did best among online retailers, according to the IMRG figures. It found that those traders with stores and online facilities saw year-on-year sales rise by 28% in March, compared with 1% for online-only retailers.
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