Coronavirus lockdown sends UK online clothing sales spiralling
UK online clothing sales were down 23.1% year-on-year during March as the government’s coronavirus lockdown rules came into force, according to the IMRG Capgemini Online Retail Index.
Menswear was down 42.9% and footwear 32.8%.
The warmer weather and increased amount of time spent in the garden during the pandemic sent online garden sales soaring to +94.4% YoY. Beauty also continued to build on strong February sales, spiking to +36%, while electricals recorded March’s third standout performance – up by 40.2%.
During week two of the month when the government raised the outbreak risk from moderate to high, electrical retailers saw sales rise by 47.7% YoY as consumers turned to home entertainment and raced to set up their offices.
The overall growth for March limped in at -5.1% YoY – well below the 12-, 6- and 3-month rolling averages (+4.5%, +6.7% and -2.1% respectively) but still above last month’s performance by +2.6% (MoM). As many Brits stockpiled, March started off with poor online sales for the first fortnight, but seemed to recover in weeks three and four following the government’s announcement of official home isolation rules on 17th March.
Multi-channel retailers, meanwhile, outperformed their online-only counterparts for the first time since April 2019, recording growth of -4.0% versus -5.5%, as they shifted more of their operations into the digital sphere.
“There is a bit of a myth going round at the moment that online sales are booming. It’s more accurate to say some online retailers are experiencing huge demand, outstripping even that seen over Black Friday, because so many people are in the exact same situation – ie stuck at home. That has created very lopsided demand among product categories,” says Andy Mulcahy, Strategy and Insight Director, IMRG.
“People simply don’t have much need for new clothes or shoes at the moment, which is why at the overall level sales growth is down. How and when a stronger balance in demand might be established is a pressing question for retailers currently on the wrong side of that divide.”