Biggest online sales growth due to warm weather

The unusually warm February weather has increased the growth of online sales severely. It is the biggest growth in six months, according to IMRG Capgemini eRetail Sales Index. Even though sales in February were below the average five-year growth of +10.6% year on year, this warm weather-growth finally gives relief to online retailers who struggled recently.

The ‘Garden’ sector experienced the largest online sales growth due to the impact of the warm weather. Compared to last year, the sector grew by +33.3%. It is followed by ‘Health and Beauty’ with a +13.4% year over year increase. However, not all sectors were able to profit from this change in temperature. Electricals went down by -15.4% and gift-sales even decreased with -27.6%. The sales of clothing did not endure a drastic change (+0.9%). It was still too early in the year for spring collections to be released.

Spring

The principal consultant in retail customer engagement of Capgemini, Bhavesh Unadkat says: “February is usually a transitional month as spring lines take over the shop floor and clearance continues, especially online. In this regard, it is interesting to see that conversion was up over 20% on the year but sales only grew by 9%.”