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EDITORIAL Fast fashion leads as sales move still further online

Online retail continues to grow

Online retail continues to grow

In today’s InternetRetailing newsletter, we’re reporting as Mastercard data suggests well over half of the money spent in UK retail is now spent online, rather than in stores. The study also says the UK is furthest along the road as spending shifts further online. The Mastercard figure may come as a surprise, and it’s certainly well ahead of other recent figures from the likes of the British Retail Consortium, which suggests 33% of sales were online in a particularly Cyber November, while the ONS says 18% of October’s sales took place online. But it’s well worth considering as an outlying indicator that may well point to a general direction of travel.

For this week we also report on a Forrester study that shows footwear and clothing sales moving online fast, especially in the UK. We tie that to figures issued by two UK fashion retailers this week, Ted Baker, and Joules, both of whom show a growing proportion of sales taking place online. For Ted Baker, the figure is 30%, while for Joules, it’s closer to 50%. Both say that multichannel is standing them in good stead as consumer behaviour changes.

Meanwhile, we also report as Swedish hardware retailer Clas Ohlsen says it’s closing UK – and German – stores in response to the growing amount of sales that are now taking place online. It’s interesting that the retailer sees a distinction between the way that its UK shoppers buy, and how those in its local Nordic markets do – where it is still opening stores.

Certainly, in the UK market, the lack of stores has not hampered the success of leading retailer Amazon, covered in our ’this week in peak’ update. Hitwise data suggests that for an increasing number of shoppers, Amazon is the first and last stop on their Christmas shopping journey. We also report today how the retailer achieved similar results in the French market over the course of Black Friday.

Today’s guest comment stays close to these themes, with useful advice from author Brett Lawrence of Inviqa on how online fashion can inspire millennials in the Amazon era. 


Image: Fotolia

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