- Online retail grew by +3.2% Year-on-Year in September 2024, the first growth since April 2021
- The first two weeks of September drove the market’s overall revenue increase
- Clothing retailers experienced their first Monthly YoY growth in two years
- Optimism grows among retailers ahead of the crucial Black Friday and Christmas trading seasons
08th October 2024: IMRG, the UK’s eCommerce association, reported growth in total market online revenue for the first time in 41 months in September, at +3.2% Year-on-Year (YoY). That is according to their Online Retail Index which tracks the online sales performance of 220 retailers. The last time the total market experienced positive revenue growth was in April 2021 (+6.7% YoY), and from April 2021 to September 2024 there was only two months which experienced flat growth (November 2022: 0.2% and August 2023: 0.5%).
The resurgence in September was largely driven by the first two weeks, which saw impressive YoY revenue growth of +11.6% and +10.8% respectively. Although the latter half of the month witnessed declines, the early boost means many retailers may start to feel more optimistic about the upcoming peak trading period, including Black Friday and Christmas.
The growth in September 2024 can be attributed to several online product categories achieving big revenue spikes, most notably across health & beauty, gifting, clothing, and home & garden. Standout performers included accessories & hobbies (+21.6%), makeup (+21.3%), fragrance (+18.4%), footwear (+13.5%), and haircare (+11.3%). Clothing saw its first positive growth in exactly 24 months, rising by +4.2% YoY.
Andy Mulcahy, Strategy and Insight Director at IMRG, commented: “The start of September is the back-to-school week, which is a peak of sorts in retail – that one really saw a big uplift this year whereas the other retail event in September, 100 days to Christmas, brought negative growth, though overall the month balanced out in positive. So where does that leave us? After such a long and miserable period of decline, it feels like there are cautious reasons for optimism. We’ve seen a sustained recovery in traffic growth over the past two months, following declines across 2023 and first half of this year, plus marginally better conversion. So it feels like we are perhaps inching toward more reliable performance for ecommerce, which is great news for retailers approaching peak.”
About the IMRG Online Retail Index
The index has been tracking online retail sales for over 220 multichannel and online-only retailers across multiple product categories since 2000. In 2023, the overall sample of revenue in the index was over £25bn.
Published 08/10/2024
