UK online sales up for August

Thanks to back-to-school deals and innovative consumer engagement, U.K. online retailers experienced a boost in sales in August. The IMRG/Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index for the month found British shoppers spent £5.2 billion online, a 14 percent increase from August 2010.

The report showed back-to-school shopping for apparel had strong numbers, with sales in clothes, footwear and accessories rising 22 percent from last year. Homewares also witnessed demonstrated growth, despite the riots that broke out in London during the second week of August. IMRG and Capgemini researchers said the riots were not widespread enough to affect the month's numbers. In addition, multichannel retailers reported 16 percent growth in online sales between August 2010 and August 2011, while pure online retailers' sales jumped 10 percent.

Chris Webster, head of retail consulting and technology at Capgemini, said the report found an increase in sales compared to 2010, but August sales figures were lower than those reported earlier in the year.

"However, it's worth noting that with such a strong performance during the first half of 2011, it's a big task for e-retail sales to maintain such rapid growth," Webster said.

In an interview with Retail Gazette, Russ Carroll, U.K. managing director of Shopping.com, said Brits took advantage of the summer months to get back-to-school apparel and make home improvements.

"Clothing once more showed incredible year-on-year growth, a sign of the huge strides made by fashion retailers in making clothes shopping online as enjoyable as it is on the high street," Carroll told the news source.