Unseasonably warm weather in February saw the strongest online sales growth in six months, says IMRG Capgemini eRetail Sales Index.
Despite falling below the five-year average of +10.6% year-on-year (YoY) for February, the growth provided some relief for online retailers after recent struggles.
The impact of the warm weather -which included the hottest February day on record – was particularly reflected by the Garden sector, which experienced +33.3% growth compared to last year. Health and beauty also built on its recent strong performance with a +13.4% YoY increase for the month. In contrast, gifts (-27.6%) and electricals (-15.4%) both fared poorly during the month, and clothing spends remained relatively flat (+0.9%) – perhaps due to it being too early for spring lines.
Retail response
“February is usually a transitional month as spring lines take over the ‘shop floor’ and clearance continues, especially online. In this regard, it was interesting to see that conversion was up over 20% on the year but sales only grew by 9%. This performance is driven by ongoing uncertainty ahead around Brexit outcomes and looming interest rate rises feeding customer caution. The result is that people keep shopping for basics, essentials and discounts in the mainstream, but stop shopping for ‘inspiration’ or at higher price points, both of which lead to a decrease in conversion. This kind of caution usually has an impact on categories like electricals and gifting which declined at -15% and -27% on the year respectively. That said, this time last year was also pretty strong for online as the horrendous weather kept people indoors, so growth on 2018 overall isn’t all doom and gloom we hope?”
– Bhavesh Unadkat, principal consultant in retail customer engagement, Capgemini
“Discounting had been very widespread across retail since July 2018, owing to the difficult and unique trading environment that retailers are facing. Following January clearance, many either switched off discounting or at least reduced the prominence of it – and it’s the multichannel retailers that seem to have navigated the shift more successfully. Those with a high street presence recorded a rate of online sales growth almost three-times greater than their online-only counterparts and the basket values are also revealing; the February average spend on multichannel sites was down -7%, while for online-only retailers it fell more sharply by -17%, suggesting perhaps that they still maintained a greater reliance on discounting.”
– Andy Mulcahy, strategy and insight director, IMRG
