Alcohol sales see online boom

Published: 23 July, 2008

Online sales of beers, wines and spirits grew by 60% in February and March, according to the latest IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index.

The sector is now worth more than 700m per annum.

And the online channel is bucking the retail sales trends generally too.

Despite falling high street sales and poor Easter trading, online shoppers spent a record 13bn in the first quarter of 2008.

According to the Index, that's equivalent of 213 for every person in the UK.

Compared with the first quarter of 2007, shoppers spent 50% more in the first quarter of this year.

Other sectors performing well online include clothing, footwear and accessories with spend in March 2008 up 21.8% on the previous month.

In contrast, electricals have only seen a small level of growth online in the first quarter.

Anthoula Madden, vice president at Capgemini UK's consumer products and retail team, said: "The poor Easter weather appears to have paid off for online retailers as more people seem to have spent more time inside, shopping online in March.

"Interestingly, people in the UK don't appear to be curbing their drinking as the online beer, wines and spirits sector saw a huge increase in sales of more than 25% in the first week of March alone.

"The looming budget may have spurred people on to stock up on alcohol before the increase in taxes.

"Adding to this, we have seen poor trading results for pubs in light of the bad weather and perhaps more smokers are drinking at home.

"The latest figures from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index show that the future is not all doom and gloom for retailers - yet it underlines that online is an essential channel for retailers to survive in such unstable conditions."

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