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Online shopping reaches £4.8bn
iPhone boosts dot-com sales

By Julian Goldsmith

Published: Wednesday 20 August 2008

Online shopping revenues in the UK rose, month-on-month, by 11 per cent to £4.8bn in July.

According to the latest IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index the amount spent online rose, despite a shrink in disposable income, to the equivalent of £79 for every person in the UK and continued to outstrip high street sales.

Recent British Retail Consortium figures showed high street sales for July were 0.9 per cent lower than the previous month.

Clothing performed the best in the month with a rise of 22.8 per cent, fuelled in part by the unseasonably cold and wet weather. Gifts came out worst with a fall of five per cent. Electricals, which have performed poorly since the New Year, rose by seven per cent. Researchers put the rise down to the launch of the iPhone 3G and sales of TVs in anticipation of the 2008 Olympics.

Capgemini UK head of consulting for retail said: "Gloomy market conditions have not dampened consumers' appetite for shopping online. Online sales continue to show strong growth particularly when compared to the tough trading conditions on the high street.

"The increase in clothing/footwear sales demonstrates consumers' ever increasing familiarity with e-retailing, extending their shopping behaviour into more and more categories. Even the electrical sector, which is highly susceptible to falling consumer confidence, is seeing good growth driven by the increased choice, price transparency and convenience that online has to offer."