UK e-commerce association IMRG has revealed the total online retail revenue grew by 3.2% year-on-year (YoY) in September 2024, the first time the market has seen positive revenue growth in three years.
According to the company’s Online Retail Index, which tracks the online sales performance of 220 retailers, the last time the total market experienced positive revenue growth was in April 2021 (6.7% YoY). From April 2021 to September 2024 there were only two months which experienced flat growth – November 2022 (0.2%) and August 2023 (0.5%).
The resurgence in September was largely driven by the first two weeks, which saw impressive YoY revenue growth of 11.6% and 10.8%, respectively. Although the latter half of the month witnessed declines, the early boost means many retailers may start to feel more optimistic about the upcoming peak trading period, including Black Friday and Christmas, according to IMRG.
Andy Mulcahy, strategy and insight director at IMRG, commented, “The start of September is the back-to-school week, which is a peak of sorts in retail – that one really saw a big uplift this year whereas the other retail event in September, 100 days to Christmas, brought negative growth, though overall the month balanced out in positive.
“So where does that leave us? After such a long and miserable period of decline, it feels like there are cautious reasons for optimism. We’ve seen a sustained recovery in traffic growth over the past two months, following declines across 2023 and the first half of this year, plus marginally better conversion. So, it feels like we are perhaps inching toward more reliable performance for e-commerce, which is great news for retailers approaching peak.”