UK online garment sales proportion remains stable in April

13 May '14

4 min read

British Retail Consortium releases online retail sales monitor figures for April 2014.

BRC-KPMG Non-Food Retail Sales Year-on-Year Growth:

Clothing

In contrast with March, the fashion categories growth were negatively affected by the Easter break – which fell in April this year as opposed to March last year. Clothing came bottom of the rankings table and recorded its lowest contribution since our online monitor began in December 2012. As for stores, demand in the Children’s segment was better than for Women’s. As a proportion of total sales, Online was almost unchanged compared to last year, at 22.0%.

Stores Enjoy Easter Sales Boost Over Online

-Online sales of Non-Food products in the UK grew 11.2% in April versus a year earlier. In April 2013, they had increased by 6.3% over the previous year.

-In April, online sales represented 16.1% of total Non-Food sales of our Monitor, against 15.9% in April 2013. April’s penetration is the lowest recorded by our monitor since last April, an effect of the Easter distortion.

-The Other Non-Food category contributed almost 80% of the growth, followed for the first time by Furniture, a category helped by the Easter break, which recorded its best contribution since our monitor began in December 2012. In contrast, Easter led Clothing to record its smallest contribution since the start of the monitor.

-Online sales contributed 0.5 percentage points to the growth of Non-Food total sales, the lowest contribution since March 2013.

Helen Dickinson, Director General, British Retail Consortium, said, “Online sales have grown steadily over the last year with a twelve month average change of 12.7 per cent year on year which is testament to the great British online retail offering. However the April 2014 growth of 11.2 per cent against 12.8 per cent in March shows that, when an opportunity like the Easter holiday arises, customers like to enjoy a great experience in store.

“Retailers know that customers want to experience shopping across all channels and have risen to the challenge of using digital technology to draw customers into new format stores where everything is available at the touch of a button.”

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