The latest figures from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index reveals that poor weather conditions appear to boost online clothing sales whilst driving people away from the high street.

Poor weather this spring appeared to have encouraged online shoppers to spend over £300 million on clothes and online footwear sales saw a significant growth in sales of 20%. These figures drew a sharp contrast to sales on the high street – The British Retail Consortium reported that clothing and footwear fell further to their worst for at least 8 years.

Even in light of the looming credit crunch, the online clothing sector is still growing at a high rate. Of notable interest, shoppers are turning to the internet when making more personal underwear purchases – the Index has seen online year-on-year sales for lingerie rise by 72%.

According to Julia Reynolds, Chief Executive of, MutualPoints favourite, Figleaves.com: “The lean and fit will survive the credit crunch. Our experience tells us that retailers with strong brand values and a clear target customer will stand out during an unsure economic environment. To introduce changes in fashion seasons online, e-tailers need to communicate with customers what’s new and use various marketing methods, for example email alone is no longer sufficient.”

So does this apply to you, the humble MutualPoints member?  Does bad weather encourage you to shop online in preference to the high street?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 11:23 am and is filed under General, Mutual Points, Online shopping news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.