Online retail volumes have increased at their fastest rate since Christmas, a newly-published report has suggested.
The latest Retail Sales Index from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) found that June saw ecommerce sales grow by 14.1 per cent over the course of just one month. This represented the largest increase of its kind since Christmas and an indication that the UK economy is “turning a corner”. Furthermore, if the notoriously busy Christmas period was excluded, June’s figures represent the fastest growth since July 2012,ft.com reports.
The announcement on a year-by-year basis also illustrates strong growth, with June 2012 witnessing a marginally smaller 12.1 per cent monthly increase. It was also much higher than the current trend line, which has shown average ecommerce expansion of 10.5 per cent.
Much of this growth, the BRC claimed, could be attributed to the recent spell of warm weather, with consumers looking for gardening supplies, DIY tools or new summer wardrobes. Thus, any retailers operating in this industry but not currently online may wish to source a site and credit card processing facilities before they miss the summer rush altogether.
Commenting, director general of the BRX, Helen Dickinson, told internetretailing.net: “As the weather warmed up, we saw a good reaction to the excellent promotions that are available at the moment, accompanied by continuing demand for value and essential items.
“The weather also helped DIY and gardening products record a record month and we saw some of the purchases that may have been postponed during the cold weather earlier in the year begin to take place.”
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