Mobile drives joyful June for e-tailers, IMRG

UK online retailers had reasons to be cheerful during June, as the hot weather and start of the World Cup spurred a 16.9% year-on-year (YoY) growth of retail sales, according to the latest IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index.

Both multi-channel and online only retailers performed well (+14.8% and +18.7% respectively). Andy Mulcahy, Strategy and Insight Director, IMRG, says: “Sales growth for UK online retail has been consistently strong so far in 2018 – in spite of the fact that there are signs of a slowdown underway. The smartphone has been the main device accounting for that high growth, yet despite sales being up +34% through these devices in June, it was actually the lowest growth rate for smartphones since October 2014.”

He adds: “The reason that this lower rate is not causing a wider slowdown in the overall index is likely due to the fact that smartphones now account for over one-third of total online retail sales. For many people, they are either already, or well on their way to becoming, the device of choice for browsing and shopping in most contexts.”