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Rioting results in online shopping sales growth

Monday, August 22, 2011 - 09:28 by Graham Miller

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As several of the UK's major cities were locked down amid fears over rioting, many consumers turned to safe shopping online rather than heading out to the high streets where looting and violence awaited this August.

According to John Lewis and Waitrose there was a marked increase in online sales during the riots, with the former reporting a 2.9 per cent overall rise on its e-commerce platform.

Across all online retailers there was a 35 per cent year on year increase in sales when compared to the same week during 2010.

Waitrose saw even bigger performance boosts than John Lewis, raking in £95.9 million in a week, an increase of 8.4 per cent.

The high street has been struggling to maintain its footing for the past few months as a result of consumers tightening their purse strings and choosing the cheaper alternative of safe shopping online when it comes to buy products and services.

With the riots in London, Birmingham and other urban centres upsetting the balance on busy shopping streets, it is easy to see how some retailers might collapse completely unless things recover.

Of course the figures produced following the riots suggest that large multichannel retailers like Waitrose and John Lewis are unlikely to go under with strong support for their brands both online and off.

 More vulnerable are the smaller chains or one-off businesses which are trying to command a presence in the high street and also expand online to make sure that they can grow over the coming years.

John Lewis spokesperson, Jonathon Brown, told The Sun that the firm had performed solidly during the riots, even though several of its high street outlets were trashed in the unrest. He explained that customers who would have normally gone to their local store instead stayed in and shopped online.