​Fashion buoyant online in June, sunshine boosts footwear sales

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jul 18, 2018

There was some unexpected good news for the UK fashion sector in June as a strong month for online sales also translated into strength in clothing, with fashion outstripping overall growth for the month.

That's according to the latest IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index, which said on Wednesday that UK online retail sales were up strongly again during June as the hot weather and start of the World Cup spurred a 16.9% year-on-year uplift. 

Both multichannel and pureplay retailers performed well (+14.8% and +18.7% respectively), “demonstrating a general taste for spending this June.”

Clothing rose an encouraging 19.3%, although it wasn't the biggest growth sector with gardening and other garden products such as barbecues leading the way on a 49.9% spurt. That's no surprise given the hot weather during the month. But clothing managed to be in second place, although whether that will help fashion company’s profits further down the line is open to question as it was the height of the clearance sales with much of what was sold having been marked down.

Within the ‘clothing’ category there were some individual powerful performances with footwear up 22.7% and accessories up an even better 23.9%. IMRG didn't say as much but we can assume that the rise came as sales of sandals, sunglasses and sunhats took off.

Meanwhile health & beauty rose only 9.9% while gifts increased 10.5%, which was perhaps a surprise.

June’s figures meant that the overall index rose 18.2% on average for each of the last three months, beating the 16.8% six-month rate and the 14.4% 12-month rate.

Bhavesh Unadkat, principal consultant in retail customer engagement at Capgemini, said: “June has seen continued buoyant sales online, strongly influenced by fashion and seasonal items. This has boosted non-essential spend while customers make the most of the buzz created by the good weather and the World Cup.

"We might question what the longer-term effect is as Barclaycard reports that one in three Britons have spent more than normal so far this summer. This could result in a slowdown as customers align the potential overspend so far this summer in the later months of the year, supported by four in 10 saying they will hold off purchasing big ticket items.”