Online shopping rocketed by 80% in July

 

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Posted on 20 Aug 2007 at 10:19

The UK's online shopping spend exceeded £4 billion for the first time in July, as the month showed massive growth.

Sales shot up by 80% year-on-year as shoppers rushed to buy digital cameras and electric goods, according to the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) study. By comparison, high street sales increased by just 3.3%.

"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," says Ulric Jérome, managing director of retailer Pixmania. "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 or looking around in high street stores."

As well as the electronics rush, IMRG attributes July's bumper sales to a number of other factors, including the heavy rain, which not only kept people from visiting their local stores but forced flood victims to shop online to replace water-damaged goods. The seasonal launch of new catalogues also drove clothing sales.

"IMRG was surprised by the strength of July's growth, so checked and rechecked the figures, then checked them again," claims Jo Evans, IMRG's managing director. "This data is sound. It reveals the extent to which the retail sector is being transformed by frictionless e-commerce. Major brands are bringing on-stream the next generation of slick new internet retailing services, and consumers are flocking to use them."