Online retail order volumes slow before Golden Quarter
UK online retail parcel delivery order volumes were up 6.4% year-on-year in September, according to IMRG/MetaPack research.
This is the lowest YoY rate in 2018 so far. “Looking at the order-volume trend line over the past few years, the declining month-on-month growth between July and August and August and September is expected,” says Andrew Starkey, Head of e-Logistics, IMRG.
“It has been a bit sharper this year, though not overwhelmingly so; does this suggest that shoppers have been holding off a bit and we’ll be heading for a big Black Friday and Christmas peak trading period, or could it be a reflection that people are perhaps not finding themselves with much disposable income and, given all the uncertainty around the UK economy at the moment, will retailers have to work even harder to hit their targets during the Golden Quarter this year?”
There was a record percentage of orders sent using next-day delivery in September: 55% of UK-delivered items used that option. The percentage arriving on-time has declined over the past 18 months or so, now established around the 90% mark for much of the year – a few years ago, before the rise of next-day, this rate was closer to 94%.
