Consumers not willing to sacrifice their holidays in 2011

It seems that the British public are willing to sacrifice many things when times get hard but not their holidays it seems. The latest figures from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index reveal that shoppers in the UK spent a total of £5.1 billion online during January, which equates to an average spend per person of £83 – the highest it’s been since December 2008.  This is an impressive 21% more than the same time last year.

With limited disposable income available, it appears that consumers, rather than hitting the high street during the January sales, shoppers instead opted for early bookings of their annual holidays. The travel sector saw a huge surge with a year-on-year increase of 31% and a massive 173% increase on sales in December 2010.

Tina Spooner, Director of Information at IMRG comments: “While the Index results for January show a very encouraging start to the year for e-retailers, it is important to note this strong growth is on the back of the lowest-ever annual growth recorded in January last year when the e-retail market grew just 4.6%. Multichannel retailers performed well last month with sales growing by almost a third compared with January last year, but the pureplays and catalogue retailers saw annual growth dip to 8%, following a year of steady growth in 2010.

Sales of travel were strong during January, particularly after the severe winter weather in December. Clearly, Britons are not tightening their belts where holidays are concerned, with the Index recording the highest average spend in this sector in over two years.”

Chris Webster, head of retail consulting and technology at Capgemini says: “January was a very interesting month. As expected we saw a strong growth in the Index following a very weak start last year, but the jump in the travel sector and the gap between multi-channel and pure plays has come as quite a surprise.  In regards to the surge in travel, it seems that the British consumer is looking ahead to sunnier times and taking full advantage of the big New Year sales offered by the major travel operators. It remains to be seen whether the sector continues this growth in February following the recent announcement that Iceland’s second largest volcano, Bardarbunga, is on the verge of erupting.”