Surge in smartphone searches benefit UK retailers

By

Cajsa Lykke Carlson

Published
Apr 27, 2015

There was an increase in the number of Google searches for apparel in all categories except men's clothing in the first quarter of 2015 in the UK, the BRC has found.

Searches for multichannel apparel retailers experienced a 42% increase year-on-year, while searches for pureplay apparel retailers increased by 16%. There was a 54% rise in smartphone UK apparel search volumes and an 11% increase in tablet search volume. The number of overseas customers searching for UK apparel retailers rose by 53% on smartphones.

Helen Dickinson, Director General, British Retail Consortium, said: "British shoppers are also increasingly looking abroad as well as at home to buy their clothes, with a 9 per cent rise in consumers searching online for overseas clothes retailers. This trend also applies however to shoppers abroad with a 10 per cent rise compared to last year in the number of consumers in other countries searching online for UK apparel."

Peter Fitzgerald, Retail Director, Google, said: "Mobile continues to drive growth in the UK and this remains the case with apparel in the first quarter of the year. Interestingly, emerging markets still see strong growth from tablets, however smartphones supercharge growth for overseas consumers of UK brands."

"Multichannel retailers had a strong Q1, growing at 42% YoY. This reflects the increasing trend we see in the UK toward click-and-collect services. Consumers value the convenience of in-store collection, and particularly for apparel, the ability to easily return goods to store."