Online shopping has had another successful month despite the negative impact of Royal Mail strikes in the last 2 weeks of October.
The IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index shows that shoppers spent £4.2bn online in October with a month on month growth of 8.4%. This growth would have been significantly higher but dipped by 2% and 5% in the last two weeks of October as a result of the strikes. Successful ecommerce sites however countered this dip by providing alternative delivery methods and ensuring clients were made aware of this.
Year on year e-commerce rose 11.8% and continues to outperform high street retail.
Online shoppers have been planning ahead with gift shopping increasing 113% over the previous month. This is the fastest growing sector and is 40% higher than October 2008.
All other sectors also recorded positive growth as below:-
|
|
% Change Month on Month
|
% Change Year on Year
|
|
Gifts
|
113%
|
40%
|
|
Footwear
|
24%
|
38%
|
|
Accessories
|
21%
|
64%
|
|
Health and Beauty
|
15%
|
2%
|
|
Electricals
|
12%
|
12%
|
|
Beers, Wines and Spirits
|
10%
|
12%
|
|
Clothing, Footwear and Accessories
|
7%
|
13%
|
|
Lingerie
|
5%
|
13%
|
The report also believes that Christmas will come early for many e-commerce sites as shoppers will be buying early to avoid any potential delivery delays. The huge rise of gift sales is indicative of this trend.
The biggest learning to be taken from this report is that e-commerce sites must be prepared to inform and alert consumers into guaranteed delivery methods. Subtle website design tweaks must be made now to make calls to action prominent and these should include clear and highly visible mention of delivery methods. Variations in keywords could also be positive for e-commerce sites such as building content with keywords such as “guaranteed Christmas delivery”.
While there are no further planned postal strikes, e-commerce sites will do well to build consumer confidence by making sure delivery terms are made prominent.
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