Online sales for the first six months of 2008 were up 24% to
£26.5bn - equivalent to almost half of all supermarket sales -
according to the
IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index.
Web sales are starting to eat into high street sales as
consumers turn to the internet to find bargains. The British Retail
Constortium said UK retail sales fell 0.4% on a like-for-like
basis, compared with June 2007. "Sales have now been lower than a
year ago in three of the past four months, the worst since summer
2005," it said.
Online sales represent 17p in the retail pound. The growth rate
halved from a pre-Christmas 50%-plus, but IMRG chief executive
James Roper expected online sales for Christmas 2008 to hit new
highs.
"The dip is normal for this time of year, but it is exaggerated
by the credit crunch," Roper said. "While credit is scarce people
will go to the internet to find the best prices and more choices
than they can find in a store," he said.
Roper said the UK's online market was hollowing out. Visits to
mid-market online stores had fallen 6% since June 2007, but visits
to value sites such as Primark were up 12% and top-end retailers
such as Harrods were up 14%, he said.
A roundtable discussion on the results suggested that retailers
were reviewing the role of the high street store. Apart from
displaying goods, they were also expected to act as warehouses for
online sales and as receiving centres for returned goods. This
required a high degree of integration between the retailer's
information systems to prevent fraud, they said.
Catherine Hall, director of online marketing at Figleaves.com
said many retailers were updating their in-store electronic systems
to prepare them for further integration into the online world.
Roper said retailers' main investment priorities were store
systems, merchandising systems, and web development. The industry
was also working on payment and data sharing schemes to cut the
risk of fraud in online sales. But it was up to the banking sector
to show the way, he said.
Delivery of ordered goods was a constant problem, delegates
said. This was because half the population was out of the home
during working hours.
Tim Jones of GeoPoint said the key was to deliver goods to the
right person at the right time to minimise administration costs and
carbon costs. His company had developed a system that sent text
messages to customers to warn them when to expect a delivery. This
was popular with some, but depended on the store capturing the
customer's mobile phone number at the point of sale, he said.