UK e-sales rise in September but fashion is sluggish

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 20, 2016

UK online sales rose 15.8% in September to cap a strong quarter of growth from June through to last month. But fashion retailers were challenged as the unusually warm weather dented enthusiasm for their autumn/winter drops, IMRG Capgemini figures show. In the latest quarter, the index saw its highest growth (17%) since Q1 2014.

Online-only merchants outperformed high street/multichannel retailers with annual growth that was 4.3 percentage points higher than the multichannel group.

Britons spent an estimated £10.6bn shopping online during September, resulting in total estimated spend for the year so far of £90.6bn – this is up from £78.7bn in the period January to September 2015

M-retail sales (including tablets) grew 34.4% year-on-year in September and grew 3.3% from the previous month.

While clothing sales grew 15% last month, the warm weather kept consumer interest low for the ‘new-in’ pieces from e-stores and that 15% growth was the smallest monthly rise since April this year.

Other categories performed much more strongly. The home and garden sector topped off 11 consecutive months of good growth with a 21% September rise helping it to a 24% rise for the year as a whole so far. This compares with a 5% decline in the same period a year ago.

IMRG said that UK e-tail sales, including those for fashion, “may in part have been driven by increases in international shoppers buying from retailers’ .co.uk sites, so they can pay in sterling and get maximum benefit from the sharp shifts in currency we have seen over the past few months.”

While we know that many foreign tourists have visited Britain in the past few months to take advantage of the weak pound, it is unclear just how much of an effect online shoppers buying across borders are having.

Few retailers break out sales figures separately for cross-border traffic to their UK shopping sites.