Online sales fell by a fifth in November, the biggest drop on record

Data shows that online retail sales fell a record 19.8% in November. According to foreign media reports, compared with the online shift during the lockdown in November 2020, this decline may also be affected by shoppers buying in advance due to supplier shortages and delivery disruptions .

The report said this was the lowest growth recorded in the 21-year history of the IMRG Capgemini Online Retail Index. In contrast, November 2020 was particularly strong , when non-essential retailers were blocked and shoppers were effectively directed online, driving e-commerce sales up 36.2%.

MRG strategy and insight director Andy Mulcahy said that in the retail industry, they tend to focus on the negative factors, but there is no avoiding that November's performance was very bad. The most worrying thing is that traffic has become a major problem .

The number of visits to retailers' websites has decreased, which is closely related to consumers returning to physical stores. However, many consumers may reduce the number of times they go out to the streets in recent days to avoid isolation during the Christmas period.

  IMRG analysis shows that in November this year, shoppers bought less frequently , with conversion rates falling 20 % ​​year-on-year to 3.3%, while the average basket value fell to £123 from a peak of £149 in 2021. In addition, unlike last year , sales of multi-channel brands that are able to sell in-store fell 23.4% this year, while sales of online-only brands fell 13.4%.

In the statistics, clothing was the only category that did not experience double-digit negative growth , among which gifts were hit the hardest, falling by 46.4% , followed by electrical appliances, which fell by 29.2% .

Lucy Gibbs, head of analytics and AI retail at Capgemini, said the decline in online sales this year was not as bad as expected , but the month-on-month data showed that overall spending was "more subdued." She also said that while the return to offline shopping accounted for a large part of the spending, other factors such as supplier shortages and delivery disruptions also caused retailers to spread out and dilute some offers, which may have improved conversion rates by 20% throughout November.

Although the data in November is not ideal, more companies still have high expectations for the fourth quarter, and Christmas has become the focus of this quarter.

November

Online Sales