Online retail sales hit record high as £10bn spent in November

Data from IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index revealed online sales were up 20% year on year and surged 30% month on month, the largest monthly growth in 10 years.

Additionally, mobile sales in the month rocketed 81%.

Capgemini vice president and head of retail consulting and technology Chris Webster said: “These results are particularly strong and give a clear indication of what we can expect to see during the peak shopping weeks in December.”

The data is in contrast to sales in physical stores after the British Retail Consortium recorded a 2.9% footfall decline in the UK in November.

Multichannel retailers recorded annual growth of 23%, while pureplay online retailers reported sales up 16%, as IMRG believes online consumers are buying from high street favourites this year.

IMRG chief information officer Tina Spooner said: “While the overall Index performance was ahead of our expectations during November, it seems the strong online growth recorded by the high street retailers is being driven by the prominent promotion of their multichannel offering. We often see ‘online, mobile, in-store’ as the potential channels for engagement in retailer adverts.”

IMRG found that electricals retailers had performed particularly well in the month, with sales surging 63%, the highest monthly growth since the launch of the Index. IMRG said this was due to budget tablet devices hitting the market and the release of the new iPhone and iPad devices.

Home and garden also recorded a “particularly strong month”, as like-for-like growth soared 42% against last year.

Meanwhile, conversion rates for online retail as a whole achieved its highest rate since April 2009 at 5.24% in November.  

John Lewis online director Mark Lewis said: “With Christmas trade gaining momentum through the month, Johnlewis.com was up 24% on the year in November, slightly ahead of our 20% growth for the half year to date. Our mobile sales are over 100% up on the year as customers continue to change the ways in which they shop. Notable is that online now accounts for 33% of John Lewis’s overall trade, against 25% during the 2012 Christmas period.”