UK is lead growth market as online retail disruptor, Wholee Prime, marks one-year anniversary

LONDON, Aug. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The United Kingdom remains the lead growth market for revolutionary zero markup online retail app, Wholee Prime (www.wholeeprime.com), which marks its one-year launch anniversary this month.

Since its launch amidst the pandemic last August, the ethical e-retail disruptor has broken its own growth forecasts with over 4 million downloads globally, of which 1.5 million were from the UK alone. The UK also accounts for over 50 per cent of the app's membership base, followed by the USA, Australia and EU.

The figures correlate with data published by Wholee Prime this month revealing new insights into consumer shopping trends across several of its key markets over the course of the pandemic.

Exploring trends across the UK, USA, Canada and Australia, the findings reveal online retail's share of sales in the UK grew from 19 per cent pre-pandemic to a record high of 36 per cent in November 2020. In contrast, the US, Canada, and Australia each saw the greatest proportional increase in online sales occur at the start of the first lockdown.

The UK was also more reactive to changes in pandemic restrictions with online sales rising and falling more significantly compared to the other markets as restrictions were imposed and lifted.

Most notably, the report compared online clothing sales in the USA to those of the UK. It shows both markets saw a rise and fall in online sales as the first lockdown began and ended. However, in the UK this was followed by a sustained increase in the share of online clothing sales, while in the USA the opposite was true with online clothing sales stagnating.

Commenting on the figures, Eleanor Thomas, spokesperson for Wholee Prime, said:

"The last year has been one of huge upheaval for the global retail industry, both on and offline. Wholee Prime's launch last year has brought with it much needed disruption, both to the previously unrivalled dominance of players like Amazon, eBay and Wish, but also to the outdated physical retail presence of the high street. The world of consumer retail is changing, and Wholee Prime is leading the charge.

"The pandemic has accelerated the shift online, but our arrival has provided online consumers with greater choice and even more competitive pricing. Our unique platform connects our members with over 100,000 manufacturers across the globe giving them access to millions of fashion and lifestyle products across a range of categories.

"With membership starting at as little as £0.50 a month we are urging consumers to embrace the future of retail. Our free-to-download app offers users access to a radical new zero-mark-up pricing model where users only pay for the production cost on millions of products.

"We're looking forward to the next 12 months as we continue to game change the world of online retail".