Online retail revenue fell by 1.2 per cent year-over-year in June, according to Interactive Media in Retail Group’s (IMRG) Online Retail Index, which analyses the performance of 200 UK companies’ online sales. This is the 26th month in a row that growth has been negative or flat.
According to IMRG, overall online market sales climbed by 1.4 per cent in June from month-to-month, which is in line with the anticipated growth as we head into the summer.
Despite the reduction in income, after seven months of decline, the traffic measure increased by 1.9 per cent year over year. The traffic increased by 5.4 per cent from May, which made this even more encouraging month over month. This indicates a higher level of consumer demand, possibly as a result of societal events like Father’s Day and Pride.
The weather this year may have helped encourage increased traffic. This year’s warm weather didn’t start until June, and when it did, it was the hottest June on record. This had a significant effect on demand in several categories, such as clothes, which had some encouraging weeks although still experiencing a 2.3 per cent year-over-year decline. Additionally, footwear saw a 0.7 per cent year-over-year increase.
Andy Mulcahy, Strategy and Insight Director at IMRG, commented: “Following the pandemic boom, when lockdowns drove huge surges in online purchases and it appeared possible that its penetration into retail overall had rocketed forward several years, the market has actually been in decline ever since.”
