UK online sales in January increased by 72.7% year-on-year, reaching a record high

Recently, official data from the UK Office for National Statistics ( ONS) showed that online shopping sales in the UK accounted for 35.2% of total retail sales in January , setting a new record. It is reported that a year ago, e-commerce sales in the UK accounted for only 19.5% of retail sales, while in December last year this proportion had reached 29.6%.

Compared with last month, the proportion of online spending in all categories in the UK has increased , and the e-commerce industry is booming .

Online sales in the UK in January increased by 72.7% over the same period last year and 9.2% over December , and people's preference for online consumption continues to rise.

During the pandemic, a greater proportion of food was purchased online than ever before . It is reported that online food sales increased by 143.5% compared with January 2020 and 11.5% compared with December, accounting for 12.2% of total sales in the category . The ONS report said that the proportion of online sales in food stores this month reached 12.2%, breaking the record.

Non-food e-commerce sales increased by 90.2% year-on-year and 10.4 % year-on- year , with online sales of non-food accounting for 39.4% of total sales . Half (50%) of all clothing , footwear and textile sales are sold online, with e-commerce sales increasing by 48.9% year-on-year and 0.6% year-on-year.

Department stores’ online sales accounted for 37.4% of total sales , up 84.9% from the same period last year and down 9.1% from December last year.

E-commerce sales , which range from appliance retailers to bookstores , jewelers and toy stores , among other categories , were up 135.1% from a year ago and 31.1% from the previous month, accounting for 39.9% of the category’s total sales .

Home goods had the lowest percentage of e-commerce sales , likely because more home goods stores were able to open. However, online sales were still up 110.1% from last year and 22.6% from the previous month, accounting for 31.5% of sales.

But with a steady shift to online retail and strong growth in online sales, total retail sales in the UK in January were 5.5% lower than before the pandemic in February 2020, with retailers across all UK sales channels reporting sales in January were down 8.8 % from December last year and 3.8% from the same period last year.

At present, the epidemic has gradually entered its final stage. The impact of the blockade on retail will gradually decrease, the phenomenon of declining retail sales will be alleviated, and the retail industry may usher in a wave of growth.

U.K.

January

Online