Online sales of non-food items increase year on year

Last month, online sales of non-food products grew by 14.3 percent year on year, as many shoppers opted to stay in the comfort of their homes shopping as Britain saw some of its worse weather for years.

The data comes from the BRC-KPMG online retail sales monitor and shows that retailers in clothing, footwear and non-food stores would have usually seen a decline in sales during this period.

This is great news for online retailers as in the last three months 40 percent of non-food retail growth was represented by online sales. Online sales of furniture and flooring has also been steadily on the rise over the past few months – a reflection of the damage caused by bad weather.

Helen Dickinson, the Director General of the British Retail Consortium commented on the figures saying it underlies the importance of retailers having consistent multi channel offers, adding that, “online sales boost what would otherwise have been declining sales figures for half of all categories.”

However, overall retail sales actually dropped by one percent on a like-for-like basis after January saw a rise in sales by 3.9 percent. Most notably sales dropped in the south and south west of the country, areas which were greatly affected by bad weather.

Meanwhile, a recent report by Industrial and Logistics Market showed that take up was on the increase for industrial and logistics space in 2013, reflecting a growing demand in online shopping.