IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index: October online retail growth indicative of pre-Black Friday lull

Further evidence of this lull could be seen in the average conversion rate (the percentage of site visitors that complete a purchase) for October, which stood at 4.4%. This was higher than that in October 2016 (4%) but -0.4 percentage points lower than the 3-year (2013-2015) average of 4.8%. Fewer people converting on retail websites strongly suggests a more research-led focus in the lead-up to the year’s biggest discounting event.

More positively, October’s Average Basket Value (ABV) was the highest for October in 9 years – ringing in at £94. This high value indicates that shoppers were spending more per visit, which could suggest that they were checking out with multiple items driven by ongoing discounting.

Electricals also turned things around with the sector’s first positive YoY growth in 6 months, at 4%. This follows the previous 6 months’ (Apr-Sep) average of -5.9% YoY growth. What’s more, electricals saw its highest ABV since November 2015, at £152. This success may have been influenced by the release of the iPhone 8 in late September.

Conversely, both menswear and womenswear experienced their lowest YoY growth for October since IMRG records began, at 0% and 2% respectively.

Bhavesh Unadkat, principal consultant in retail customer engagement, Capgemini: “October was a bleak month for retail. You would have expected ecommerce to benefit from a more price sensitive customer, yet the interest rate hike, the bad weather and anticipation of Black Friday did little to help the cause – covering up October’s truly underwhelming performance if anything. These coming three months, October through to December, will be important to view performance as a whole and be indicative of whether people are waiting longer before they spend on Christmas. Black Friday and the Autumn Budget are both important factors in this, so hopefully we will see Philip Hammond outlining some form of catalyst to boost consumer confidence this November.”

Justin Opie, managing director, IMRG: “October was a very average month in the context of 2017, with growth of 12.6% exactly in line with the Jan-Oct year-to-date rate. As the fall in conversion rate suggests, shoppers have been well trained to expect the best deals to be available during the Black Friday period, so we can anticipate that November will convert a degree of that early research into sales – last year, the conversion rate was 5.1% in November, while it was just 4% in October. It was surprising to see electricals break its six-month pattern of negative growth in October – with Black Friday looming very large in the public consciousness, we may have expected that trend of decline to continue as shoppers held off on any major purchases, anticipating a much lower price at the end of November. The release of a must-have item like the new iPhone model could have influenced behaviour, but it’s likely that the wide availability of discounting last month was also determining.”

-ENDS-

About the ‘IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index’

The IMRG Capgemini Index, which was started in April 2000, tracks ‘online sales’, which we define as ‘transactions completed fully, including payment, via interactive channels’ from any location, including in-store.

About IMRG

For over 20 years, IMRG (Interactive Media in Retail Group) has been the voice of e-retail in the UK. We are a membership community comprising businesses of all sizes – multichannel and pureplay, SME and multinational, and solution providers to industry. We support our members through a range of activities – including market tracking and insight, benchmarking and best practice sharing. Our indexes provide in-depth intelligence on online sales, mobile sales, delivery trends and over 40 additional KPIs. Our goal is to ensure our members have the information and resources they need to succeed in rapidly-evolving markets – both domestically and internationally.

www.imrg.org

About Capgemini

A global leader in consulting, technology services and digital transformation, Capgemini is at the forefront of innovation to address the entire breadth of clients’ opportunities in the evolving world of cloud, digital and platforms. Building on its strong 50-year heritage and deep industry-specific expertise, Capgemini enables organizations to realize their business ambitions through an array of services from strategy to operations. Capgemini is driven by the conviction that the business value of technology comes from and through people. It is a multicultural company of 200,000 team members in over 40 countries. The Group reported 2016 global revenues of EUR 12.5 billion.

Visit us at www.capgemini.com. People matter, results count.