July was a strong month for the online travel sector with a number of big brands moving up the list, including National Express, EasyJet, Thomson, Ryanair, Expedia, Lastminute.com and British Airways.
The latest results from the IMRG Top 50 Retailer Ranking, in association with comScore, reveals that the home and garden sector also performed well with B&Q, IKEA, Homebase, Screwfix.com and Wickes all up compared with July last year.
However, the two biggest climbers were in the electrical sector, Currys and Carphone Warehouse, both up 10 places from July last year, followed by Notonthehighstreet.com (+9 places). National Express and Wickes rounded off the top 5 climbers during July, rising 8 and 7 places respectively, from the same month last year.
It was a mixed bag for the apparel and fashion sector with a number of brands rising in the rankings, including Next, New Look, JD Sports, Boohoo and H&M, while ASOS, Very, River Island and Matalan were all down compared with the July 2014 rankings. Ticketmaster was the biggest faller this time, down 12 places year-on-year, followed by Littlewoods (-11) and National Rail, River Island and eDreams, all down 10 places.
Tina Spooner, chief information officer at IMRG: “The online travel sector is one of the strongest performing categories in the IMRG Capgemini Index year-to-date, with growth reaching around 20% year-on-year. Therefore, it is no surprise to see a number of travel companies climbing the list in the latest retailer ranking.
“It is also interesting to see a strong performance in the home & garden sector, although this is likely driven by demand in the home category, which has also recorded strong double-digit growth this year.”
The top 10 retailers based on comScore’s Mobile Metrix smartphone and tablet visits reveals a number of brands higher in these rankings compared with their overall performance in the top 50 list. Boots and Very appear to be more popular with smartphone and tablet users than overall browsers, with both these brands featuring in the top 10 smartphone and tablet rankings, while on the overall retail list they are ranked 21 and 27, respectively. O2 is another notable brand appearing on the smartphone top 10, while it is ranked 30 place overall.
The IMRG Top 50 Retailer Ranking is published quarterly and tracks visitors based on comScore’s MMX online audience measurement technology of those selling goods and services within the IMRG Capgemini Index Classification**. This List is based on UK visitors from desktops and laptops in July 2015.