E-commerce drove an overall 4% increase in British retail sales during last year’s Christmas period but click&collect services disappointed more than a third of British online shoppers who used them during the festive period, two separate surveys have revealed.
According to the latest research from Barclaycard, online sales in the UK last December recorded the highest monthly growth since April 2012 with a 17% rise and accounted for almost a quarter (24.6%) of the total retail sales.
Department stores were the big winners on the high street with in-store spending growing 4.5% but online spending still dominated even in this segment with 18% growth, resulting in overall department store growth of 7.2%.
“Supermarkets witnessed a similar story: although in-store spend fell 0.7% in December, a boost of 13.5% to online sales meant the category was flat overall year-on-year. Average transaction values at supermarkets fell 4.8% overall as consumers continued to pursue value from their grocery shopping,” Barclaycard reported.
Along with strong December growth in terms of online spending, the Black Friday event last year turned out as the biggest ever with a year-on-year increase in online sales of 15.1%. The average transaction value of online purchases rose 6.6% as well which implies that shoppers are becoming more confident about making major purchases online. The high street, however, suffered a 6.7% decrease in spending and a drop of 7.8% in average transaction value. As a result, overall spend on Black Friday was down 1.0% versus 2014.
Chris Wood, Chief Operating Officer at Barclaycard, said: “In many ways, this Christmas brought to the fore all the shopping trends of 2015. The large spikes in spending, centred around sales days like Black Friday, emphasise consumers’ increasing search for value as they hold back their spending until the best deals emerge. Likewise, whilst online shopping has grown in popularity throughout the year, the strength of consumer preference for digital over the high street was seen in full effect over the Christmas period. As retailers continue to release their Christmas trading updates we expect many to reflect these changing behaviours.
“Looking ahead to 2016, it will be interesting to see where UK consumers choose to spend their money, and how the continuing shift towards the purchasing of experiences and services, as opposed to goods, develops and what that will mean for the retail sector,” he added.
In separate research, the Christmas Customer Pulse Report by JDA/Centiro revealed that Click&Collect services have gained in popularity among British online shoppers, with 41% of the respondents having opted to use the service last Christmas, up from 39% in 2014.
However, 36% of the UK online shoppers surveyed admitted that they had problems with Click&Collect which are likely to have negatively impacted their shopping experience when they picked up their orders. The most frequent issues included retailers who did not have a dedicated in-store pickup area for click and collect (31%), long waiting times because of a lack of in-store staff (31%), and employees unable to – or taking a long time – to find the items in store (24%).
Overall, 33% of all respondents who shopped online for Christmas said they had some problems with their purchases, up from 31% during the previous year. Nearly half (48%) of these shoppers experienced a late delivery or did not receive their goods at all while 48% had missed a delivery including when they were at home. More than three quarters (77%) said they would be likely to buy with another retailer next Christmas, as a result.
“While online retail continues to see unprecedented growth in the UK, Christmas shoppers continued to be plagued with problems concerning their online orders. While issues with home deliveries are nothing new, more worrying for many retailers is that this Christmas exposed cracks in their ‘Click & Collect’ operations,” Jason Shorrock, vice president of retail strategy at JDA, said.
“Shoppers are showing a growing preference for ‘Click & Collect’ as it offers them the convenience they crave and it is vital that retailers get it right. However, without the effective management of staff, stores and inventory, retailers risk damaging customer relationships. Ironically, at a time when the online channel continues to grow, the in-store experience is becoming ever more important. As the survey findings show, today’s online customer has no qualms about taking their business elsewhere if retailers don’t meet their expectations,” he added.
