M-Retail Hits Record Low While Beauty and Clothing See Gains

  • UK online retail sales grew by 12.8% YoY in August
  • M-retail growth hits ‘all time low’
  • Smartphone growth at 26.7%, lowest since September 2014
  • Multichannel m-retail up 1%, online-only m-retail up 15% YoY
  • Garden sales down 43% compared to July’s performance
  • Beauty sales up 25.3% YoY, clothing up 5.4%
  • Menswear growth at 18.6%, womenswear at 3%
  • Basket values in clothing down 11% from last year
  • Weak performance attributed to multichannel retailers
  • Online-only retailers up 15% YoY
  • Overall mobile device growth at 1% for multichannel retailers, 15% for online-only retailers

UK online retail sales remained steady in August, growing by 12.8% year-on-year (YoY) according to the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index. Mobile growth, however, hit an all-time low with a 10% YoY increase, marking the lowest since September 2014. Beauty sales saw a strong 25.3% rise, while clothing experienced a 5.4% increase. Menswear had an 18.6% growth compared to womenswear’s 3%. Despite the hot summer and events boosting sales in previous months, the decline was less than 2% compared to last year. The final week of August saw an uplift due to the bank holiday weekend. Clothing basket values were down 11% from last year, possibly due to promotional activities. Multichannel retailers recorded a mere 1% mobile growth, while online-only retailers experienced a 15% YoY increase.

Factuality Level: 9
Factuality Justification: The article provides accurate and objective information about UK online retail sales, including specific growth percentages for various categories and insights from industry experts. It presents data in a clear and concise manner without any apparent bias or misleading information.
Noise Level: 7
Noise Justification: The article provides relevant information about UK online retail sales and offers some analysis on specific categories and devices, but lacks a broader context or deeper insights beyond the numbers.
Financial Relevance: Yes
Financial Markets Impacted: The article discusses the growth and decline in various sectors of UK online retail sales, impacting companies in those industries.
Financial Rating Justification: This article is relevant to financial topics as it provides information on the performance of different sectors within the UK’s e-commerce industry. It mentions specific growth rates for various product categories and discusses factors affecting these trends, which can have an impact on the financial performance of companies operating in those sectors.
Presence Of Extreme Event: No
Nature Of Extreme Event: Other
Impact Rating Of The Extreme Event: No
Extreme Rating Justification: There is no extreme event mentioned in the article.

Reported publicly: www.retailsector.co.uk