Online UK retail sales saw growth for the first time since 2021 as sales spikes across key categories provided “optimism” for retailers ahead of the peak trading period.

Ecommerce revenue grew 3.2% year on year in September, marking the first time the online market has seen growth since April 2021, according to the IMRG online retail index.

The online resurgence reported mainly boosted by the first two weeks of the month, which saw revenue growth of 11.6% and 10.8% respectively.

Categories including health and beauty, gifts, clothing and home and garden all saw sales spikes during the month and clothing retailers saw their first monthly year-on-year growth in two years, up 4.2%.

The highest-performing category during the month was accessories and hobbies, with year-on-year growth of 21.6%.

IMRG said the sales boom during the first two weeks of the month provided optimism for retailers in the lead-up to the Black Friday and Christmas trading periods.

IMRG strategy and insight director Andy Mulcahy said: “The start of September is the back-to-school week, which is a peak of sorts in retail – that one really saw a big uplift this year whereas the other retail event in September, 100 days to Christmas, brought negative growth, though overall the month balanced out in positive.

“So where does that leave us? After such a long and miserable period of decline, it feels like there are cautious reasons for optimism.

“We’ve seen a sustained recovery in traffic growth over the past two months, following declines across 2023 and the first half of this year, plus marginally better conversion.

“It feels like we are perhaps inching toward more reliable performance for ecommerce, which is great news for retailers approaching peak.”

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