Covid restrictions impact Christmas trading for online retailers

After experiencing a Black Friday powered surge in demand in November, UK e-commerce ventures saw revenues dip during December, according to research from Wunderkind.

They fell 61% week-on-week (w/c 30.11 vs 07.12) in the first week of the month, dropping a further 26% the week after (w/c 07.12 vs 14.12).

This coincided with the announcement of tighter Covid-19 restrictions imposed across the UK, with 16 million Brits experiencing lockdown in tier 4 for Christmas and unable to see relatives, while many tier 2 areas are restricted to mixing with two households for just one day.

Wulfric Light-Wilkinson, GM EMEA at Wunderkind, says: “November was always going to be a crucial month for retailers, with the pressure to perform on Black Friday looming large as a ‘make or break’ start to Christmas trading.”

“E-commerce has been performing at normal Black Friday levels since March, so we saw a ‘peak on top of peak’, as November’s performance was magnified by Black Friday, which saw online revenues rise to more than three times as high as the levels seen in the spring lockdown.”