Online sales growth in the UK remained solid throughout December, coming in at +37% year-on-year for the month and driving the annual figure to a 13-year high.
That’s according to the latest IMRG Capgemini Online Retail Index, which tracks the online sales performance of over 200 retailers. Closing a turbulent year, which was underscored by high street closures and restrictions on the consumer way of life, 2020 brought online retail to the fore like never before – explaining why the full year growth figure of +36% significantly outperformed the start-of-year prediction of +7.8%.
As the UK navigated a series of tiered lockdowns, online retail sales in December defied forecasts of a poor Christmas trading period. With sales starting early and Christmas travel plans halted, online shopping continued the momentum it had built throughout the quarter – with sales up 37.6%, across the three months. This was largely driven by November’s peak performance of 39% growth and the Black Friday sales period.
Breaking down the results by category, the holiday period drove significant sales in electricals, up 116%. As firmer restrictions were put in place and people continued to meet outside, gardening sales were also strong for December, surging 165%. These figures round-off a successful year for both categories, with electrical sales up 90.8% and garden sales growing 222.5%.
Meanwhile, as social interactions dwindled throughout the year, December clothing sales growth of 3.2% failed to boost the yearly figure of just 1.3%. This was down from 8.2% in 2019. Footwear was particularly hard hit, down 5% in December and falling 10.8% overall in 2020.
Other notable spending trends in December include the widening of the gap between multichannel and online-only retailer performance – with the two groups recording figures of (+52.4%) and (+11.4%) respectively. The yearly results echoed this pattern, showing overall sales growth of 57% vs. 9.1%
Lucy Gibbs, managing consultant of Retail Insight at Capgemini, said: “Retail in 2020 has been fundamentally shaped by the pandemic, which caused disruption to consumer demand norms and a shift in focus to digital channels; reflected in the strongest online year-on-year growth in 13 years.”
She added: “Learnings from 2020 will be crucial as we navigate the uncertainties this year and a sense of a new baseline will take a while to be established. Retailers best set to ride out the storm are those with a strong online presence and the ability to remain nimble, using demand sensing to react to the changing landscape and adapt to surges both instore and online, combined with a readiness to take on opportunities as they come in 2021.”
