The World Cup: Latest Retail Match Report ...

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As the Group stages of the World Cup prove to be nothing if not unpredictable, with many of Europe’s most highly acclaimed national teams suffering underwhelming results against previously underestimated opposition, the tournament’s impact on retailers has also delivered its fair share of surprises.

The expectancy for surging pre-tournament search interest in electricals and LCD TVs to turn into strong sales was largely realised by retailers DSGi, Comet and John Lewis; reporting increases of 140%, 73% [1] and 42% [2] respectively. For the Home Retail Group, however, Britain’s biggest retailer of TVs by volume, sales were down 10% YoY with Terry Duddy CEO of HRG lamenting the lack of the same “perfect storm” they had witnessed in sales of televisions and barbecues during the 2006 competition [3].

Industry analysts have posited that Argos may have suffered from reduced demand for entry-level priced models in favour of higher price and larger screen size variants. Certainly Insights for Search would give some credence to the idea, with breakout rising searches for “50 inch TVs”, “Sony Bravia40” and “3D tvs”

As the tournament enters the knock-out stages, the categories anticipated to experience the highest continued growth in search interest include sportswear and groceries. Certainly supermarket retailers have already acted fast to capitalise on these developing trends. ASDA undercut traditional sports retailers with their heavily discounted, “grey market” sourced England Shirts [4], currently the breakout rising search for the category in Insights for Search.

World cup beer promotions within the grocery sector also remain extremely popular. Hitwise recently reported that four out of five of their top performing brands in the Experian Hitwise World Cup Brands Index for w/e June 12th were beers [5] (and World Cup sponsors no less).

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the tournament period to date, and not an item that readily fits into any of the categories mentioned above, has been the unprecedented demand for vuvuzela horns. In their coverage of Sainsbury’s first quarter trading statement - which saw a staggering rise in online sales just shy of 20% - Internet Retailing cited some of their drivers for growth including clothing, dvds and the ubiquitous vuvuzela horns [6]. The Daily Mail also reported that in the 12 hours prior to the first England match 22,000 red vuvuzelas were sold by Sainsbury's - one every two seconds [7].

Insights for Search would seemingly confirm that the vuvuzela is not just an instrument of aural punishment. Interest is higher than other perennial World Cup stalwarts “England Shirts” and “Beer”. With related top searches and rising searches like “buy vuvuzela” and “buy vuvuzela uk” it would seem that search interest continues to be driven mainly by consumer demand, rather than those desperately looking for respite in their TV coverage.





Overall it’s been a positive story so far for online retail during the 2010 World Cup. If further confirmation were needed IMRG Capgemini figures reveal that total online sales were up 22 per cent in May compared to the same time last year – the highest growth since June 2008 [8]. Now all that remains to be seen is what happens when England inevitably crash out on penalties ... again ... or loose to Slovenia later today. Come on England!

[1] "Home Retail fails to Score TV sales growth from World Cup", Retail Week, June 18 2010
[2] John Lewis Partnership 18 June 2010
[3] "Argos falls flat as World Cup fever fails to lift TV sales", The Guardian, 10 June 2010
[4] "ASDA offers half-price England Shirts", This is Money, 20 May 2010
[5] "South African Airways and beer companies biggest beneficiaries of World Cup sponsorship so far" , Hitwise, June 15 2010
[6] "Sainsbury's hits record online orders" , Internet retailing, 18 June 2010
[7] "Peace at last? Quite possibly on the BBC, but not on your iPhone (thanks to the vuvuzela apps)", Daily Mail, 15 June 2010
[8] "World Cup provides boost to growth in online shopping", The Independent, 21 June 2010

Posted by Brendan Patterson, UK Retail Team