Online sales continue to grow in July
New figures from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index reveal that UK shoppers spent £4.2 billion online in July 2009.
July sales were up 15.7% on June and 16.8% higher than July 2008.
The Clothing, Footwear and Accessories sector has continued to see growth, of 18% month on month and 17% year on year.
The Electricals sector has also seen continued growth in online sales throughout 2009, said IMRG.
Surprisingly, online spending for Beers Wines and Spirits has seen a dramatic decline in July, which is unusual as July tends to see high sales online for alcohol. Online sales for the alcohol sector saw a yearly decline of 23% – the first fall in sales growth for this sector in July since 2004.
Mike Petevinos, head of consulting for Retail for Capgemini UK, said: “Online continues to perform strongly with year on year growth in July exceeding the last 12 months average at 16.8%.
“This growth continues to be driven by the apparel and electrical sectors as retailers further improve their online propositions with better product information, visual merchandising and delivery methods.
“The other stand-out result this month was the beers, wines and spirits sector which saw a year on year decline of 23%, no doubt due to the wettest July on record for England and Wales.”
Point Topic recently revealed that Britain added 445,000 net new broadband lines in the first half of 2009 to reach over 17.8 million in total.
This is about 100,000 more than Point Topic forecast at the beginning of the year. The number of net additions forecast for 2009 is now 900,000, up 240,000 (36%) on Point Topic’s earlier forecast.
Elsewhere, the IAB Europe’s annual AdEx Report predicted that UK display online adspend will decline by 4% this year, the first fall since 2001.