Jewellers see 85% online spend boom through second lockdown
New sales data for the UK from Barclaycard has revealed that online shoppers carried many non-essential retailers through November amid England’s second lockdown.
While essential retailers saw a year-on-year rise in sales, with supermarkets experiencing a 17.9% increase over November 2019, non-essential retail was understandably impacted by closures beginning 5 November across all of England.
Barclaycard reported that spending on non-essential items contracted 4.6 per cent, even taking online retail into account.
Department stores and clothing saw declines of 18% and 13% respectively, marking the biggest drops in both categories since June.
Christmas shopping did provide a boost to all non-essential retailers with an e-commerce offering, however, with Black Friday weekend contributing significantly.
Specialist retailers, a category which includes toy shops, jewellers and gift shops, saw an 85.8% boost to online spend, Barclaycard revealed.
As more businesses have entered the world of online retail this year, competition has become fierce with vendors innovating to stay ahead of rivals.
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