UK online clothing sales were down 23.1 per cent year on year (YoY) during March as the COVID-19 lockdown was implemented, according to the IMRG Capgemini Online Retail Index. Menswear was down by 42.9 per cent and footwear by 32.8 per cent. Multi-channel retailers, meanwhile, outperformed their online-only counterparts for the first time since April 2019.
Multi-channel retailers shifted more of their operations into the digital sphere.UK online clothing sales were down 23.1 per cent year on year (YoY) during March as the COVID-19 lockdown was implemented, according to the IMRG Capgemini Online Retail Index. Menswear was down by 42.9 per cent and footwear by 32.8 per cent. Multi-channel retailers, meanwhile, outperformed their online-only counterparts for the first time since April 2019.#
As many Brits stockpiled, March started off with poor online sales for the first fortnight, but seemed to recover in weeks three and four following the government’s announcement of official home isolation rules on March 17, according to British media reports.
“There is a bit of a myth going round at the moment that online sales are booming. It’s more accurate to say some online retailers are experiencing huge demand, outstripping even that seen over Black Friday, because so many people are in the exact same situation – ie stuck at home. That has created very lopsided demand among product categories,” said Andy Mulcahy, strategy and insight director, IMRG.
“People simply don’t have much need for new clothes or shoes at the moment, which is why at the overall level sales growth is down. How and when a stronger balance in demand might be established is a pressing question for retailers currently on the wrong side of that divide,” he was quoted as saying.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
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