UK online retail sales grew by 10.7% in July, to an average of £586.6m a week, new ONS figures showed today. But the growth was far short of the 18.3% growth the ONS detected in ecommerce sales in June 2013, despite buoyant high street sales during July. That supports July surveys from organisations including the BRC and Barclaycard which found strong retail sales with relatively lacklustre growth online. All put the trend down to the heatwave, which brought shoppers out to buy.
Ecommerce accounted for 9.5% of the average £7bn spent on retail purchases each week in July, up from £6.7bn last July and £6.8bn in June 2013. During the four-week July 2013 sales period, £27.9bn was spent in total, 4.9% up on last July, and 1.4% up on the previous month.
The quantity bought rose by 3% on last July, and 1.1% on June, with sales growing particularly strongly in the food sector. There, the quantity bought rose by 2.1% compared to last July, the highest rise the sector has seen since April 2011. “Feedback from supermarkets,” said the ONS Retail Sales report, “suggested that the sunny weather boosted sales across a range of products including food, clothing, alcohol and outdoor items.”
Online food sales grew by 10.3%, year-on-year, with 3.2% of spending in the category taking place online. Other categories that enjoyed growing online sales included department stores, with ecommerce sales up by 25.9%, year-on-year, with 8.8% of sales taking place online. Online textile, clothing and footwear sales rose by 8% over the year, and 9.5% of sales were online. Household goods ecommerce sales fell by 5.6% over the year, with 5.3% of the category’s sales online.
The report also took a longer-term look at the growth in sales between January 2008 and July 2013, when the volume of retail sales grew by 4%, while their value grew by 17.2%, and average weekly earnings increased by 10.6%. “This highlights the extent,” said the report, “to which prices have grown since the onset of the economic downturn as well as the squeeze felt on households’ real income.”
