June saw a decline in online retail revenue of -1.2% YoY, the 26th month in a row that growth has been negative or flat – according to IMRG’s Online Retail Index, which tracks the online sales performance of 200 retailers in the UK.
From a MoM perspective, total online market revenue increased +1.4%, in line with the growth trend for this time of year.
However, the online traffic metric, after seven months of decline, experienced positive growth in June, at +1.9% YoY. From a MoM perspective, traffic increased by +5.4% from May, which reveals greater customer interest and perhaps reflects the impact communal celebrations, such as Father’s Day and Pride, have on trading.
One explanation for increased traffic on retail sites and a reasonable, if still just negative, performance for revenue relates to the weather, says IMRG. It took until June for reliably warm weather to arrive this year, and when it did, it was a heatwave and the hottest June on record, which had a big impact on demand in categories such as garden (+10% YoY) and clothing. However, adds IMRG, traffic performance is not always synonymous with revenue performance.
Andy Mulcahy, strategy and insight director, IMRG, says: “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. However, while negative growth has become normalised, the trend lines are heading back toward positive growth again, likely in time for the most important time of the year for retail – Black Friday and Christmas. Provided, of course, the looming mortgage crisis doesn’t blow everything off target again.”
