New research shows that European consumers increasingly shop online at Christmas
A new study has revealed that consumers across Europe increasingly chose to do their Christmas shopping online, while overall retail sales remained flat during the period.
CBRE’s European-wide annual review of retail sales figures which includes both online and traditional shop sales for the month of December found that Christmas trading across Europe was once again flat, growing by just 0.1% year-on-year.
Overall retail sales growth including both online and traditional shop sales was weakest in the eurozone area, down by 1.6% in December year-on-year. However, retailers in Russia experienced a 9.5% increase in sales during the month while retailers in Poland saw sales rise by 8.6%.
While the UK performed better than expected with the volume of retail sales increasing by 2.6% in the month, retailers in Italy, Portugal and Spain experienced the worse decline in sales, reflecting the impact of harsh austerity measures, higher tax rates and very low consumer confidence levels.
Following the 2010 Christmas trading period, CBRE reported a shift in shopping patterns, highlighting the sharp increase in the growth of online sales, compared with solid but slow growth across Europe for total retail sales. Since then, CBRE say that overall retail sales have slowed and subsequently fallen into negative territory, but online sales continue to grow at around 8% for those countries in the European Union.
CBRE’s research also identified significant differences by country in terms of the proportion of consumers that use the internet to shop online. Online sales grew fastest in the UK, Sweden, Russia and the Czech Republic. In contrast, they are currently falling in southern Europe, particularly in Spain and Portugal.
Neville Moss, Head of EMEA Retail Research, commented: “Our research suggests that shoppers are increasingly taking advantage of the advances in mobile technology, ease of delivery, and of course the opportunity to avoid the festive crowds. However, it is no coincidence that those retailers that traded well over the period, such as John Lewis or Next in the UK, have extensive physical store networks as well as sophisticated and long-standing online platforms.
“While online shopping continues to grow in influence, it is our view that the bricks and mortar experience will remain an integral part of the shopping experience during the Christmas period for the foreseeable future – the challenge for retailers is to combine the customer service provided by the physical store, with the convenience of online, social, and mobile platforms to provide the complete multi-channel shopping experience for consumers.”
