UK leads the world retail league for the proportion of sales made online
IN UK retail, the shift from high street shopping to purchasing goods and services online is not a new phenomenon. In fact, at 17.8 per cent the UK has the highest ecommerce share as a percentage of total retail trade in the world, ahead of Germany at 15.1% and the US at 14.8%, according to Statista.
As a result, several UK retailers are more advanced at ecommerce than their European peers. We believe that price, range and convenience are driving this structural shift from offline to online retail experiences and that this trend is only set to continue. Many of our investment decisions over the past years have been made with this trend in mind.
The initial wave of online demand was seen in sectors with high prices and price visibility such as electricals and white goods, where early online platforms, such as Amazon, used a low fixed cost structure to undercut the prices of established players like Currys, PC World or Argos.
After the first disruptive wave, which saw some of the traditional bricks and mortar high street retailers falter, online demand became more driven by range proliferation and a wider choice on marketplaces such as Amazon, Zalando or Asos.
While price and range are perhaps the most prominent drivers of ecommerce shopping, the notion of convenience is increasingly coming to the fore. On top of the obvious advantage of being able to access ecommerce from any place at any time, continued advances in technology also mean that websites and apps are easier and faster to navigate.
In addition, speedy product presentation via glossy pictures or videos arguably offers a more alluring insight into the product than seeing it in the flesh. The smartphone boom, coupled with the retail sector’s investment into reducing the friction of online purchases and improving the browsing experience, are positive contributors to ecommerce.
Recent surveys also show that a significant proportion of consumers cite long delivery times and lack of availability instore as key reasons for intensifying their online purchasing habits. Delivery options for ecommerce have advanced so much that narrow time slots and real-time tracking now provide an efficient delivery to home experience for the majority of online customers.
In addition, home collection and label-free returns ease the burden of returning goods – an element that has always been seen as a key friction in the consumer purchase decision. Pick-up and drop-off points via lockers, convenience stores or in transit hubs offer further convenience for both fast delivery and returns.
As the trend to online ecommerce continues and our expectations of stress-free delivery increase, we believe the ability of traditional bricks and mortar retailers such as House of Fraser, Marks & Spencer or Next to retain their customer “wallet share” in stores is decreasing.
Although many high street retailers have tried to address these issues through increased investment in their retail stores, the loss of market share to true online players such as Asos or Boohoo is evident. Sadly, and despite the further investment into improving their offering, the online presence of our traditional retail houses is, in most cases, failing to compensate for the lost offline sales – take as an example House of Fraser’s recent announcement of imminent store closures.
In the UK, there are only a handful of general retailers that actually benefit from the trend to online ecommerce and are actively taking advantage of market share changes. Some big box retailers like M&S and Halfords and are more affected than others such as JD Sports and Dixons Carphone, but these industry headwinds and margin pressures are set to continue.
In contrast, pure-play online retailers such as Asos, Boohoo and Just Eat, look well placed to benefit in the value chain and have the potential to further unlock new pools of profitable consumer demand.
Frederik Nassauer is a fund manager at Aberdeen Standard Investments.