UK's online sales surge
The latest figures from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index have revealed a “better-than-expected” performance for online sales during the first six months of 2011.
Online spend was also 1% ahead of IMRG and Capgemini's growth forecast for the period back in January.
While previous studies have found that safe shopping online need not only be about price but about service quality and convenience, IMRG has found that in 2011, it is increasingly being motivated by value above all else, writes Shop Safe.
During the same period, the year-on-year sales on the high street dropped by more than one half of a percentage point, which does not bode well for brick-and-mortar retailers who are not starting to adopt e-commerce as an alternative stream of revenue.
Reuters reveals that the growth was attributed to four factors - shoppers searching online for better deals than the high street, good weather in April which drove earlier than usual summer fashion sales, spending ahead of the Royal Wedding, and the wet summer.
In June itself, 5.3 billion pounds were spent online, 21% more year-on-year. That compared with a fall of 0.6% on the high street, reported by the British Retail Consortium.
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