IMRG reports that online sales for July totalled £4.2 billion,
£1.86 billion higher than the figure for July 2006. By contrast,
high street sales grew by just 3.3% during July, according to
National Statistics, to an average weekly value of £5 billion, or
roughly £20 billion a month.
Jo Evans, managing director of IMGR said: "We were surprised by
the strength of July's growth, so checked and rechecked the figures
…then checked them again.
"This data is sound. It reveals the extent to which the retail
sector is being transformed by frictionless e-commerce. Major
brands are bringing on-stream the next generation of slick new
internet retailing services, and consumers are flocking to use
them. It's big players' success that is now driving e-retail growth
and boosting the Index."
Several factors contributed to July's very strong growth,
including the very wet weather which inhibited travelling,
encouraged people to shop online, and forced many people to replace
water-damaged goods, according to IMRG. It also said that many
new-season catalogues are published at this time of year and their
orders are now taken largely online. New or updated websites with
greatly expanded product ranges, the continuing uptake in domestic
broadband and increasing consumer confidence were also cited as
reasons for the surge in sales.
IMGR has been collecting sales data from numerous e-tailers
since 2000.
