The Office for National Statistics has just published its latest report into the state of the UK’s retail market, covering the changing trends that were apparent over the course of June. Analysts found that 31.8 per cent of all sales made last month were carried out via safe shopping online, a significant year-on-year leap.

While May of 2020 remains the bigger month for overall e-commerce sales dominance, it is clear that even with some outlets reopening in June there was a general consensus amongst consumers that sticking to online shopping made sense during the ongoing pandemic.

It is not just the fact that more people were shopping online in June than ever before which is noteworthy: the figures show that there was actually an overall increase in spending of 1.5 per cent, according to Internet Retailing. This allowed June’s figure to easily eclipse May’s by 13.1 per cent, showing that there was a little more confidence and certainty on the whole.

With weekly average online spending of £2.5 billion reported, it seems inevitable that 2020 will be another record-breaking year for e-commerce and could ultimately lead to indelible changes to consumer habits, as other industry bodies and experts have already claimed.

Once again the fashion segment was revealed to have suffered most significantly from spending slowdown in June, with a 34.9 per cent fall in activity overall, even if there was better news online as sales of clothing and footwear actually grew by 26.8 per cent.

There are obviously some parts of the retail market which are more reliant on a bricks and mortar presence to boost sales, so while the rise of online shopping during the pandemic has brought about a paradigm shift, there are still segments that will need the high street to flourish.