According to the BRC-KPMG Online Retail Sales Monitor, in July, non-food online sales growth was 14.9% over the previous year, roughly in line with the 12-month average of 14.7%. This long-term average represents a clear acceleration over this time a year ago when the 12-month average was 9.9%.
Momentum has built throughout the year thanks to increased use of mobile and tablets, click & collect and more sophisticated websites. Established websites offering a good level of service are rapidly gaining a competitive advantage and capitalising on their high level of traffic by partnering with complementary retailers.
As a result of the sustained higher online growth, the proportion of July online sales was 16.7% of total UK Non-Food sales up 1.4 percentage point from July 2013. One in six pound sterling spent in the UK on non-food products is now spent online.
Online sales contributed 1.7 percentage points to the growth of overall UK Non-Food sales. Over the last three months, online has contributed almost the same as stores to overall UK non-food sales.
Furniture experienced its highest growth and contribution since February. This is said to be exceptional for this category which is usually suppressed during the summer season, but also highlights the soft comparable period faced by the home categories. Retailers that invested in useful website functionality, such as online furniture customisation, saw strong returns. Unsurprisingly, garden furniture performed well in the warm weather and some retailers saw good demand for replacement bedroom furniture.
