General Election 2017 Sees Biggest Dip In Online Spending Ahead Of Brexit Anniversary

• Ecommerce data experts PCA Predictanalysed 10 key moments relating to Brexit in the past year to uncover any effects on online consumer spending
• From 2016-2017 the average daily ecommerce purchases totalled 3,923,336, however, during these ten key Brexit dates this purchasing level was almost 60% lower

UK: To tie in with the one year anniversary of the European Union (EU) Referendum, new research today reveals how UK online shoppers reacted to key stages in the Brexit timeline over the past year.

The research from ecommerce data experts PCA Predict (a GBG company), analysed 10 key moments in the Brexit timeline for levels of online shopping among British consumers.

From 2016-2017, UK consumers, on a daily average, made 3,923,336 purchases online, according to PCA Predict. However, when this average is compared against key dates related to Brexit, consumers consistently held back on making purchases on these dates.

PCA Predict found that:

• Brexit’s Effect On Shopping:
  • The recent (i) General Election (08/06/17) saw the lowest level of online purchases, just 1,579,670 – a drop of 59% against the daily average
  • This was followed by:
    • (ii) The day referendum results were announced (24/06/17) – 1,642,100 purchases were made in the UK – a drop of 58% against the daily average
    • (iii) EU’s European Affairs ministers approve the European Commission’s negotiating proposals, giving Michel Barnier a mandate to start the process (22/05/17) – 1,673,510 purchases were made – a drop of 57% against the daily average
    • (iv) The day Article 50 was triggered (29/03/17) – 1,688,450 purchases were made – a drop of 56% against the daily average
    • (v) The government introduces a 137-word bill in Parliament to win the right to trigger Brexit (26/01/17) – 1,784,710 purchases were made- a drop of 54% against the daily average
      • A full summary is below in ‘Notes To Editors’ regarding the other dates
• Sector: The fashion sector, across all of these key Brexit dates, performed consistently the best for online purchases, followed by the food and beverage industry
• Highest Shopping Day: The day the Supreme Court convened to decide whether Parliament or the Prime Minister had the power to invoke Article 50 (05/12/16), saw the highest level of shopping online in the UK. Over 3,581,000 purchases were made by British consumers, far above other Brexit-related dates, however, this also coincided with the run up to Christmas when online purchases are normally significantly higher

PCA Predict’s address verification service is used by over 11,000 leading ecommerce brands including ASOS, Tesco and House of Fraser. This research is based off the billions of online purchase transactions that PCA Predict’s platform facilitates each day and this data is compiled by the company’s Ecommerce Trends tool.

 Chris Boaz, Head of Marketing, of PCA Predict said: “Currently British consumers spend more than any other shoppers in Europe, accounting for nearly one third of all online purchases. Yet as our data shows, Brexit has seemingly shook consumers’ confidence.”

“This has serious implications for online retailers and shows how hard they now need to work to not only gain, but also retain customers. If a consumer can’t easily purchase something online, via the checkout, then a retailer is in trouble.”

“Retailers can simplify this checkout experience by using smart address verification technology to ensure a parcel arrives to the correct address. Such technology speeds up the checkout process by minimising the amount of manual typing needed while ensuring the data entered is valid. This is crucial as in a separate piece of research we found that nearly half of consumers told us they would abandon purchases if the checkout process is too long.”