Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
The home sector was a major beneficiary of increased online spending in January.
According to the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index, UK shoppers spent £5.1bn on the internet last month – a year-on-year increase of 21% – with the home and garden sector seeing a boost of 56%.
The travel sector also did well, chalking up a 31% year-on-year rise, but alcohol sales fell by 67% and clothing, footwear and accessories sales were down 39%.
IMRG spokeswoman Tina Spooner warned against putting too much store by the overall growth. She said: “While the index results for January show a very encouraging start to the year for e-retailers, it is important to note this strong growth is on the back of the lowest-ever annual growth recorded in January last year when the e-retail market grew just 4.6%.
“Sales of travel were strong during January, particularly after the severe winter weather in December. Clearly Britons are not tightening their belts where holidays are concerned, with the index recording the highest average spend in this sector in over two years.”
