The post-Olympic figures are out showing a disappointing decline in online retail sales. Whilst many anticipated a hike owing to the number of Londoners working from home for the month, sales in fact fell 11% from July. Maybe people were simply taking advantage of the break from the office because M-commerce (mobile) sales saw a massive increase rising by 294% year on year or 280% if you extract travel.

(Source IMRG Capgemini retail sales index)

Online traffic experiences sharp fall

Interestingly visits to major search engines in August also decreased – by 100 million (when compared with July) and 40 million when compared to August 2011. This is the first month in 2012 when there hasn’t been an increase in search activity.

(Source Experian Hitwise)

Top August 2012 search terms not what you’d think

Another surprising statistic relates to August search terms. Olympic related terms didn’t feature within the top ten searches, the second most popular of which was ‘Prince Harry Vegas Pictures.’ No prizes for guessing what September’s top term will be.