According to the online retail organisation IMRG, June was a barnstorming month for ecommerce sales with scorching with 20% year on year growth. That’s the biggest monthly increase that IMRG have released for two years.
So what’s going on behind this headline figure? Interestingly, whilst the overall spend is up it seems that individuals are spending less per head with average basket sizes down from £87 in June 2012 to £79 in June 2013.
Strong performing sectors included clothing, where sales were up by 29%, year-on-year. Home and Garden also grew 35%. The change of the weather in June would seem to have had consumers dashing out to update their wardrobes and spruce up the house. Mobile ecommerce grew 136% year-on-year.
Tina Spooner from IMRG said: “The online retail market has performed above expectation so far this year, with the first half coming in at 16% average growth against our earlier forecast of 12%. We haven’t seen the rate of year-on-year growth recorded in June for two years, which is around the time confidence in an economic recovery seemed to be heading toward its lowest ebb. The solid growth last month was driven by a strong performance in clothing, perhaps as a result of heavy discounting, however the UK online retail market has performed remarkably consistently throughout 2013 so far, which may signify an overall improvement in consumer confidence that will be welcome news for many.”
2 Responses
This data seems to dispel the fear in an earlier article about how the sunny weather suppresses ecommerce. Perhaps the key is in the growth of mobile commerce, which is more weather-resistant (you can enjoy the sun and buy stuff at the same time) and yet, perhaps, you wouldn’t put quite so much in your basket via a mobile device.
We believe it has more to do with coming from a very low base combined with continued serious price discounting.
Yes there is some underlying growth (thankfully) but most of it is being obtained with continued pressure on margins.
Sorry to say the position in many online market segments is very far from healthy – in particular profitability is simply not good enough to justify trading for some.
The effect of mobile is marginal at best.