Online sales of non-food products in the UK grew 9% YOY in June, when they had risen by 17.6% over the previous year, according to the latest BRC-KPMG survey.
Furniture remained at seventh position in the growth rankings table, recording its worst performance in over two years. A reversal of last month’s trend, Store sales experienced faster growth than Online Furniture sales, resulting in a 1.1 percentage point fall in the online penetration rate to 27.7%.
Online sales represented 20.6% of total non-food sales in the UK, against 19.8% in June 2015.
BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson OBE says: “Online sales growth slowed to 9% this month. While lower than last month’s growth it remains a solid performance, considering that June 2015 had recorded the best growth of that year. Online sales grew across all categories except Footwear and increased their share of total non-food sales as stores sales slipped further into negative territory.
“While online clearly remains the primary driver of sales growth for UK retailers, shoppers are no longer thinking in channels and are more and more often using both digital and physical stores as part of their customer journey from initial consideration to the actual transaction. Today’s figures re-emphasise the need for physical stores to be a destination for retail experiences rather than specifically and solely for the sales transaction itself.”
