Unsettled weather along with online promotional activity drove online sales up; in fact, all categories except footwear grew in the online channel, whereas only furniture, homewares and health and beauty experienced growth in stores. Other non-food was the fastest growing category in March and contributed more than half of the total non-food online sales growth. Toys and baby equipment was the second fastest growing category with sales favoured by the seasonal events of Easter.
Online sales represented 20.5 per cent of total non-food sales in the UK in March 2016, against 19 per cent in March 2015, according to the online#
Clothing sales continued to report positive growth, but at significantly lower rate than the previous month. Consumers have reacted to unsettled weather, according to retailers, who experienced lower demand than expected for new season clothing. Sales in March were mostly driven by promotional activity, with the Men's &Children's segment outperforming the Women's. The penetration rate increased by 1.7 percentage points to 27.5 per cent YoY.
Online Footwear sales shrank and reported their weakest growth since records began in 2012, falling to the bottom of the growth rankings table. While both segments reported a shortfall, Women's footwear was the driver of March's slowdown. Despite negative growth, the penetration rate increased by 0.2 percentage points from last year to 30.5 per cent, as online sales outperformed footwear purchased in stores. Footwear was the only category that registered a negative contribution to online sales growth in March, the survey found. (SH)
Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India
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