Even as the high street came out of hibernation last month, June’s online retail sales spiked to a new twelve-year high of +33.9% Year-on-Year (YoY) according to the latest IMRG Capgemini Online Retail Index. Examining the retailers by type, sales in June were overwhelmingly driven by multichannel sellers. Continuing the trend from March, multichannel retailers recorded far higher growth for the fifth consecutive month over their online only counterparts, with sales up +51.7% versus +10.0%.
Lucy Gibbs, managing consultant at Capgemini said: “Online sales have continued to go from strength to strength in June, albeit at a slower rate than last month. Clothing is the only sector to have remained in negative YOY results online, with footwear down -18%, womenswear down -15%, perhaps surprising as we might expect to see a resurgence in fashion due to pent up demand as restrictions ease.
“The persistent increase in e-commerce will likely translate into new habits that will continue as we transition out of lockdown, however this is expected to be at lower levels than we have seen during the lockdown period. As the weeks continue, we will see if we have reached the turning point in online sales growth and which behaviours are here to stay as spending starts to revert to a ‘new normal’,” she adds.
Andy Mulcahy, strategy and insight director at IMRG said: “In June, growth for online retail sales was once again at a rate we’ve not seen since 2008, even with the shops open for half of it. So, initially at least, online has proven resilient to the reopening of the other main outlet for retail, the high street. However, as of 4th July, people have more options for how to spend their money, as pubs, restaurants and other leisure spaces have opened.
“So how long will the online boom last? For some categories (such as grocery and beers, wine and spirits) it seems reasonable to assume that some of the regular demand will have shifted online for good, while for other categories the huge surges they have seen might reach natural limits and slow down. It seems remarkable to suggest that we might be seeing the gradual start of that in garden, where in the last week of June for example, growth was ‘only’ +57% – the lowest for that category since lockdown started.”
