Online sales surge as UK's stores reopen

The week that England’s non-essential stores reopened saw online retail sales surge by 41.3 percent year-on-year, according to the latest IMRG Capgemini Online Retail Index.

What’s particularly interesting is that for multichannel retailers, despite their physical stores reopening on 15 June, online sales grew by 71 percent year-on-year, which is the highest growth ever recorded for this group.

However, online clothing sales plateaued at 0 percent growth week-over-week despite steep discounting.

“Multichannel retailers saw online sales go from strength to strength despite a hypothesis that the ability to spend in re-opened stores would decrease the reliance on online shopping,” Lucy Gibbs, managing consultant - Retail Insight, Capgemini, said in a statement. “As lockdown eases in an attempt to shift back towards the former pre-Covid-19 norm, the question remains which consumer behaviours and trends will return, and which will have changed for the long term? Have consumers' shopping habits irreversibly swung towards Online shopping rather than Instore shopping?

“Right now, it may be too early to unpick the patterns from consumers’ pent up demand being released by governments decision to relax these measures, alongside an increased drive for consumer spending; it appears moving retail front of mind is also potentially causing a halo effect in digital sales.”

Photo credit: FashionUnited