Q2 online retailing up 55%

June was a bumper month for online retailers as overall sales reached an amount higher than the annual takings in London’s West End. Some £3.5 billion was spent online in June as the IMRG Index recorded a 55% annual increase - its highest sustained growth rate for four years.

The IMRG Index climbed to 3430, close to the all time high of 3553 recorded for December 06 (when sales reached £7.66 billion). This brings the IMRG Index’s average year-on-year growth for Q2 2007 to 52.5% - significantly higher than for the same period in 2006 (35.33%), 2005 (30.8%) or 2004 (35.4%).

Sustained growth such as this has not been seen since early 2003, when 100% annual increases were a regular occurrence (78.4% on average for the three months, April, May and June).

Jo Evans, IMRG’s MD commented: “This astonishing growth shows that all shopping is entering an entirely new phase. Thanks to the internet, shoppers are getting used to thinking about, finding and buying goods and services in new ways. They no longer need to plan their lives around when the shops are open and, for many, queuing for the till is a thing of the past. They would rather listen to other shoppers’ opinions of what goods are like than rely on marketing spiel. Consumers have tasted e-shopping power, and are well and truly hooked.”

Online sales of electrical goods were a massive 92% higher in June than last year. Pixmania’s Ulric J?me, MD France & Northern Europe, explained: “June and July are key months for sales of electrical products on the internet, as people buy electronic items for their summer holidays: Digital Cameras, MP3s, Laptops… Since the beginning of the year we have seen that confidence in internet shopping has reached a very high level in the mindset of consumers.

“Our feedback shows that most UK customers are now coming directly to our web shop without first shopping / looking around in high street stores. The reality is that online retailers are able to secure more aggressive prices for their customers: this along with the vast quantity of product information available online and the ease of the buying process that avoids having to queue in stores is the winning mix of a smarter way to shop. Shoppers recognize that most internet sites are becoming more and more professional, trying to get the best of the offline experience online. This reality is directly reflected in our UK conversion rate which has increased by 59% from last year.”
Emma Herrod

http://www.internetretailing.net/

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 at 4:43 pm and is filed under Articles, E-commerce News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.