Ecommerce sales took a hit in January as the majority of product categories saw a dip due to lower demand.

Online sales dropped 7% over the month – or 3.5% year on year – the IMRG Online Retail Index found.

January’s online sales were the second-lowest since the lockdown comparison period back in early 2022.

Ecommerce is expected to remain flat during 2024, as it takes a hit after growing during the pandemic, according to the trade body.

Online sales were down 9.4% year-on-year during January’s payday week, from a 11.1% decline during the same time last year.

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IMRG strategy and insight director Andy Mulcahy said: “Up until around 2019, ecommerce was rightly regarded as an industry with high potential, buoyed by the notion that everything was going online, and the high street seemed in terminal decline.

“Around that time, though, the overall growth rate for ecommerce had actually started to head toward flat.”

He added: “The lockdown period then gave us years of data that was heavily skewed, but what we are seeing now is not just a consequence of that any more.

“The economic situation is dire, demand has been impacted and ecommerce feels like it is no longer immune to tough times but is just as vulnerable as retail more generally and other customer-facing industries.”

The news comes after online spend nudged up 3.7% over Christmas as discounting and BNPL were rife.

UK shoppers spent £24.4bn online over the period, with online prices discounted in the range of 11% on average when compared with pre-Christmas season levels.

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