// Online retail sales drop by 8.7% year-on-year in May 2022 as trading conditions continue to be “very tough”
// Health and beauty category saw one of the worst performances seeing a 28% dip
Online UK retail struggled last month as comparisons with the boom of the pandemic and immediate-post-pandemic period remained tough according to figures.
However fashion remained strong, being described as a category “making up for lost time”.
Online retail sales growth fell by 8.7% year-on-year in May 2022 as trading conditions continue to be “very tough”, despite being measured against a negative -6% performance in May 2021.
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According to the latest IMRG Capgemini Online Retail Index, which tracks online sales for 200 retailers, May’s results had also disrupted a positive month-to-month growth, falling by 0.6% compared to April.
Throughout the month there was variation in performance by week, with week one recording the lowest growth at -10.9% YoY, whilst week three was almost positive at -0.3% YoY.
Budget retailer sales plunged by 15% last month with luxury retailers down 3.6%. Mid-market retailers were up 0.5%.
The index showed that overall trading conditions continued to be very tough, and in the first week of the month, the performance was particularly bad with a 10.9% drop against May 2021.
However spending did improve as the month went on, and in week three it almost reached positive territory at only a 0.3% drop.
This “may have been a Jubilee boost — with people purchasing patriotic clothing and other items in advance of the bank holiday — without that, performance might have been even worse”, the Index said.
At a category level, clothing’s performance had been “strong” with sales rising by 14% overall.
This divided down into an 18% jump for womenswear and a 12% rise for menswear.
The health and beauty category saw one of the worst performances seeing a 28% dip.
Overall IMRG reported that website traffic was up 8% year-on-year, although customers were taking longer to decide on a purchase, according to retailers.
IMRG Strategy and Insight Director Andy Mulcahy said: “There’s no dressing it up, May’s performance was pretty awful online. April’s results suggested growth might be flat, but it is clear now that the economic situation is having a deep impact on demand; if it wasn’t for the Jubilee, which produced a slightly better week than the others, the decline might have been double-digit against negative growth for the same month last year.
“The one bright area is clothing, where growth was strong this month against +13.5% in May 2021. It seems to be a category making up for lost time, following almost flat growth in 2020. [It] could be that it is now simply benefiting from the increased number of people shopping online, combined with a general sense among the UK public that the pandemic is over and they can go out as they please again.”
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