UK E-commerce Rebounds: 3.2% Growth Marks End of 3-Year Slump

UK E-commerce Recovery: Fashion Leads the Way with 4.2% Growth

Sales had been going down for almost three and a half years, a trend that was seen in other European countries as well. The first two weeks of September saw significant growth in the IMRG Online Retail Index, which tracks 220 major players in the market. This ended a 41-month run of negative performance.

The rise in the online fashion area may be the most positive sign. After going down for exactly two years, online fashion buying went up 4.2% year-over-year in September. This is especially good news for big names in the fashion industry like Asos and Boohoo, who have had a rough time since the post-COVID slump started in the spring of 2021.

Source: Imrg.org

E-commerce Traffic Growth Signals Potential European-Wide Recovery

Even though the second half of September didn’t quite live up to the first half, Andy Mulcahy, Strategy and Insight Director at IMRG, is still cautiously hopeful.

“We’ve seen a sustained recovery in traffic growth over the last two months, along with marginally better conversion rates,” he says.

It looks like e-commerce is getting more stable, which is a good sign as we get closer to the busy season.

It’s important to note that this isn’t just a UK trend. Germany expects a small increase in e-commerce this year, after seeing sales drop at its top thousand online stores for two years. The Thuiswinkel Markt Monitor also says that people in the Netherlands spent 1% more on goods online in the first half of 2024 than they did in the same time period in 2023.