After a disappointing first quarter, Easter failed to deliver a boost to subdued online retail sales, with April recording sales growth of just 5.2% year-on-year.
According to the latest IMRG Capgemini eRetail Sales Index, this compares poorly to a very strong performance in April of last year (+12.5%) but continues an ongoing trend of subdued growth seen since the start of 2019.
During the first quarter of this year, the Index recorded average sales growth of 7.5%, which is the lowest quarterly growth since Q1 2015 (+6%). Comparatively, the same quarter last year delivered growth of 14.5%.
Further sector analysis shows a number of categories struggling significantly in April – most notably clothing, which saw its overall growth rate slow to 6.7% YoY (from +9.9% in April 2018) and decreases in both lingerie (-8.5%) and accessories (-2.6%).
Elsewhere in April, electricals continued its downwards momentum, and gifts saw a steep decline.
In terms of channel spend, it has been an interesting year to date for mobile commerce. As the channel has matured, the Index has been seeing a slowdown in growth over the last four years, however sales really picked up in the past two quarters and Q1 saw average growth of 12.4% versus last quarter (for smartphones and tablets combined). In a complete reversal of fortunes, device sales for April however dropped by a staggering 20.5%, with the decrease more marked for online-only retailers (-39%) than multichannel (-8%).
Bhavesh Unadkat, principal consultant in retail customer engagement, Capgemini, shares: “Easter 2018 fell between March and April so we were hopeful the figures for April 2019 would be favourable (full Easter performance) given the slow performance in March – this did not seem to be the case given the 5.2% increase YoY. If you compare March and April 2018 to March and April 2019 then the growth is only 6.2%, which is still less than half the growth of April 2018 on April 2017.
“Looking ahead, we are approaching a strong May-July 2018 performance to benchmark against given the royal wedding, football World Cup and good weather, leaving retailers with the feeling of having a ‘mountain to climb’ next month and beyond.”
Strategy and insight director at IMRG, Andy Mulcahy, adds: “2018 was a tough year for retail generally as the industry appears to be undergoing an accelerating period of transformation. Online sales were strong in the first half of the year, but growth rates dropped toward the end of the year culminating in subdued trading over the Black Friday and Christmas peak. 2019 has seen a continuation of those trends, with clothing sales having a particularly difficult time; growth for this category has been low single-digit for six consecutive months for the first time since we started tracking it.
“There seems to be little sign of imminent improvement in shopper confidence; retailers will now be hoping that the warmer weather forecast over the coming weeks may stimulate greater demand, especially for those selling seasonal fashion lines.”
Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and TJM Media Pvt Ltd. is not responsible for any errors in the same.
