June delivers another bumper month for online BWS sales

By Andrew Catchpole

Published: 09 July, 2020

Despite the reopening of bricks and mortar stores, online continued to surge through June, surpassing May’s figure by 3.5%, representing a 33.9% upswing year-on-year.

Mirroring May’s uplift, beer, wine and spirit (BWS) sales were up 79.9% in June, second only to electrical sales, at 99.7%, according to June’s IMRG Capgemini Online Retail Index, which tracks online sales across 200 stores.

While the growth was lower than in May, it suggests that the trend to online purchasing is continuing even as retailers reopen their physical doors, with BWS helping drive the trend.

As to how long the online boom will last, the report highlighted that July may present a different picture, with consumers now having more options to spend their money, not least as pubs, bars, restaurants and leisure venues reopen.

Andy Mulcahy, strategy and insight director at IMRG, predicted that for BWS, at least, the trend is very much here to stay.

“In June, growth for online retail sales was once again at a rate we’ve not seen since 2008, even with the shops open for half of it,” said Mulcahy.

“So how long will the online boom last? For some categories, such as grocery and beers, wine and spirits, it seems reasonable to assume that some of the regular demand will have shifted online for good, while for other categories the huge surges they have seen might reach natural limits and slow down.”

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