Late Easter saw a slight online sales growth, yet marking the lowest results of the first quarter of 2019, says the latest IMRG Capgemini eRetail Sales Index.
According to IMRG’s analysis released today, online sales grew 5% on the year-on-year (YoY) rate in March. However, the positive growth fell below the 3-, 6- and 12-month rolling averages of +7.5%, +7.1% and +10.2% respectively. This month has marketed the lowest online sales revenue for this year.
However, the growth is against a strong base from March 2018. Two factors facilitated last year’s results growth. First, an earlier Easter on the 1st of April which prompted consumers to shop for the event. Second, cold temperatures that kept shoppers away from the high street and boosted online sales the same time last year.
The impact of a late Easter was the most apparent in the home and garden sector. It saw significant growth from a slow down earlier this year to a positive 1.6% YoY.
Meanwhile, despite a strong performance in footwear (16.7%), the clothing field continued its five-month run of single-digit growth (3.7%). Electricals and gifts sector saw sales fall to a negative -26% and -22.1% respectively.
In contrast, health and beauty had yet another strong month of sales (+15.6% YoY), with beauty outperforming the rest of the sectors with a 19.8% increase. This is perhaps due to a few skin line launches last month including Amazon’s first private-label skincare line.
Easter had fallen in April this year; later results will give a broader picture of March’s performance, considering all of the factors.
