UK: Pureplay online sales will exceed multichannel retailers’ this year
Last year, multichannel retailers’ online sales totaled £19.4billion (US$30.3billion), while pureplays’ totaled £18.4billion (US$28.7billion). However, it’s all change this year, according to Mintel’s Online Retailing UK 2015 report. This year, multichannel retailers’ online sales are set to total £21.5billion (US$33.5billion), £300million (US$500million) less than pureplays’ £21.8billion (US$34billion)
Mintel predicts that online retail sales in the UK will reach £43.3billion (US$67.6billion) this year, accounting for 12.7% of all retail sales. By 2020, total annual online sales are expected to rise by 64% to £71.2billion (US$111.2billion), and account for 18% of total retail sales. By 2020, multichannel retailers will account for under half (48%) of all online sales, down from 51% in 2014.
“For online pureplays the challenge will be to provide the levels of service that store-based retailers are able to offer,” said Richard Perks, director of retail research at Mintel, commenting on the finding that, despite their edge over multichannel retailers, pureplays will only account for 6% of total retail sales this year.
“We are starting to see some of them open physical outlets but this is likely to increase their costs and further erode the price difference between in-store and online. It could also play into the hands of store-based retailers which already have the multichannel experience to effectively edit an online range for displaying in-store.”