August online retail sales growth slows down

Online retail sales growth in August fell by 9.3% year-on-year, which was only a small improvement compared with July’s fall of 9.6%, according to the latest IMRG Capgemini Online Retail Index. The index revealed that August’s results were still “well below” the six (2.25%) and 12-month (21.37%) averages, but above the three-month average. Health and beauty remained one of the poorest performers, down 32.8% versus last month’s drop of 36.1%. Bucking the trend, beers, wines and spirits (26.8%) and garden (40.1%) continued to do well throughout August, with clothing also managing to remain in the positive at 10.3%. Other notable spending trends in August include the average basket volume (ABV) reaching its highest average for 2021 at £149, this was mainly driven by sales in home, garden and electricals. Lucy Gibbs, managing consultant, retail lead for analytics and AI, Capgemini, said: “Online sales growth continued on its negative trend this month. Interestingly, this was mainly driven by a 7.3% drop for multichannel retailers, with online only retailers actually recording a growth of 1.7% in August compared to July. “This could indicate that multichannel retailers are focusing their efforts to get consumers into their shops again, given that British consumer confidence has reached pre-pandemic levels for the second month in a row according to GfK’s Consumer Confidence Index.” Andy Mulcahy, strategy and insight director, IMRG, added: “With conversion dropping, it suggests people are encountering out-of-stock items or not finding what they were looking for, but when they do find something in stock, they buy it without shopping around for a better price. “A lower reliance on discounting to drive sales is interesting in the build-up to Black Friday – the discounting event of the year. It does seem highly likely that whatever a retailer’s plan for Black Friday stock was back in January, there will need to be some adaptation if they can’t get the right products in time to fit their campaign plans.”

August online retail sales growth slows down

The index revealed that August’s results were still ‘well below’ the six (2.25%) and 12-month (21.37%) averages, but above the three-month average

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