UK Online Sales Hit £10 Billion For The First Time

Monthly online sales exceeded £10 billion for the first time in November as retailer's new focus on Black Friday proved a success.

Heavy promotions around Black Friday for the first time in the UK - traditionally a big event in the US because it is the day after Thanksgiving and the day retailers go from a loss to a profit -  helped increase monthly sales by 20 per cent to £10.1 billion.

Black Friday discounts on electrical products by retailers including John Lewis and the launch of the new iPad and iPhone products by Apple lifted consumer electronics sales by 63 per cent, according to the data, released by, the IMRG Capgemini e-Retil Sales Index.

The increased was also 30 per cent greater than October. The survey revealed that online sales at bricks and mortar retailers increased 23 per cent year-on-year compared to rise of 16 per cent at pure-play internet retailers.

The British Retail Consortium said earlier this month that total retail sales increased 2.3 per cent - slower than October and below the level of inflation. The BRC also said like-for-like retail sales - stripping out sales from new space in the past year and a truer reflection of the health of retail businesses - increased just 0.6 per cent.

The Black Friday phenomenon was hailed as a success by Asda, a sub-division of Wal-Mart giant and one of the retailers responsible for importing the even this year. The event is also increasingly driven by global suppliers as much as retailers who organise their supply chain, offer retailers discounts and develop and time the release of products to coincide with the day.

Mark Lewis, online director at John Lewis, said: “November was a strong month for johnlewis.com, breaking several records.

'We more than doubled our previous record for a single day’s trade on johnlewis.com on 'Black Friday', with mobile orders more than three times the record for a single day and ended that week 19.4 per cent higher than our previous biggest week,' he said.

Sales via mobile devices at John Lewis are up by more than 100 per cent so far this year compared to 2012 as shoppers continue to change the way they shop and online sales now account for 33 per cent of John Lewis overall trade, compared to 25 per cent last year.