By Andy Mulcahy, Strategy and Insight Director, IMRG
Online retail sales growth on Black Friday was very strong this year, coming in at +38%, with the full Black Friday week (defined as an eight-day period, Mon 23 – Mon 30 November) seeing growth of +30%. That figure is based on the daily online sales performance of 102 UK retailers.
LONDON UK – 03 December 2020: The weekly figure was below IMRG’s original forecast of +35-45%, but it still represents massive growth on what was already huge volumes across that week. It is likely that the national lockdown in England pulled sales volumes forward to a degree, with the first three weeks of November all securing growth rates in the +56-61% range.
Andy Mulcahy, Strategy and Insight Director, IMRG: “Generally speaking, the patterns of demand we’ve seen across the whole year were maintained during the Black Friday peak, with home & garden the strongest category. In fact, the home & garden participant with the lowest online sales growth across the full eight-day week still secured a higher rate of growth than any other participant from any other category.
“With all that additional traffic to sites, we might have expected them to buckle under the strain a bit more but actually they seemed to hold up quite well. Now the operational focus is very much on delivery – the carriers have had to deal with huge volumes for most of the year, but the week following the Black Friday weekend is when it reaches a peak. Things seem to be holding up ok at the moment; if they get through the next few weeks without significant disruption to customer deliveries it will be a testament to their planning and execution.”
*****ENDS*****
About IMRG
For over 20 years, IMRG (Interactive Media in Retail Group) has been the voice of e-retail in the UK. We are a membership community comprising businesses of all sizes – multichannel and pureplay, SME and multinational, and solution providers to industry. We support our members through a range of activities – including market tracking and insight, benchmarking and best practice sharing. Our indexes provide in-depth intelligence on online sales, mobile sales, delivery trends and over 40 additional KPIs. Our goal is to ensure our members have the information and resources they need to succeed in rapidly-evolving markets – both domestically and internationally. www.imrg.org
