After online sales slumped to their lowest ever July growth last month, retailers saw little reprieve in August with growth of just 3% year-on-year (YoY), according to the latest IMRG Capgemini eRetail Sales Index.
Though typical for sales to slow at the end of summer, August’s result falls well below the 5-year average of +9.6%, as well as the 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month rolling averages (respectively +5.3%, +3.8%, +5.7%).
Looking at the results on a category level, clothing was one of the few bright spots for retailers, with sales up 9.1% against last year.
However, the picture was not so positive for most categories. Both electricals and gifts continued their extended runs of negative growth (recording falls of 22.5% and 30.3%), which started at the beginning of the year for electricals, and as far back as last September for gifts. Meanwhile, despite the late summer sunshine and Bank Holiday weekend BWS and home & garden were also both down by 6.9%.
Andy Mulcahy, strategy and insight director at IMRG, commented: “Growth for online sales in 2019 has been well below expectation this year, but there was some hope that it would balance out as 2018 was a year of two distinct halves – the first half was very strong, the second half far less so. It was as we entered the third-quarter last year that growth started to fall away, so this should be the point at which growth rates edge up again as they are against lower rates from last year. That has not happened.
“It’s not universal bad news – some categories are doing quite well still, but in general retailers are having to work hard to drive sales activity; the average spend is down by around one-third, quite likely due to discounting, and the higher-spend categories of electricals and home & garden are both in negative territory. It’s difficult to see anything terribly positive on the horizon as we move toward the crucial peak trading period; it could be a very tough one this year.”
Industry Insight:
IGD research shows that vast majority of shoppers are interested in using technology in some way to support them with their food and grocery shopping – 77%, and this rises to 88% among Influencer Shoppers. The most popular ways shoppers say they would like technology to help them are to compare prices and to find the best offers.
Choose the digital commerce stream at IGD Live for new flagship research on the future of retail…find out more here
