Despite forecasts of poor turnouts and a number of retailer boycotts, November’s annual discount days set online sales soaring last month, with a growth rate of 16.4% year-on-year, according to the latest IMRG Capgemini Online Retail Index.
This was not only the highest growth of the year to date, but it was also over double the growth achieved last November (+8%), and 54% higher month-on-month than October’s results. Comparatively, October-November growth rates typically reach around +40%.
Further category analysis paints a similarly positive picture, with most categories recording double-digital growth. Clothing saw its highest sales increase (+19.3%) since November 2016, while health & beauty and beer, wine and spirits reported particularly strong growth of +43.9% and +37.3% respectively. After a year of dismal results, electricals also fought back – reducing its previous double-digit sales fall to just -2.58%, which is the best result of 2019 to date.
From a channel perspective, it was online only retailers that seemed to benefit most from Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with growth of 24.7% versus 9.2% for multichannel retailers. Both channels also saw increased conversion rates (+6.9% overall vs. +6.2% in 2019), though the Average Basket Value (ABV) fell by 11%.
Lucy Gibbs, Senior Consultant at Capgemini, said: “The jump in November sales this year was well beyond expectations after an otherwise difficult year, could this be what retailers, or rather, consumers were waiting for?
The highest growth this year has been seen in the discounting periods; a sign that when wider consumer confidence is low then the predictable sale events in the retail calendar are counted on for stretching wallet spend. Online only retailers were the biggest winners where higher conversion and larger decreases in ABV suggest deeper discounting strategies than the multichannel players.
“Will having so much increased activity concentrated in the black November events after tricky year provide the boost needed or add to the challenge of maintaining profit margins this year?”
