Parcel volumes generated by online retail sales in the UK fell by 12.7% in August, compared to July, as the result of low growth in online retail sales last month.
E-retail sales increased by only 6% in August, compared to July, partly due to low growth recorded across a number of sectors, including clothing, recent figures from e-commerce association IMRG showed.
The double-digit drop in e-parcel volumes in August corresponds to the established month-on-month trend for this time of year “as the growth trend returned to normal following a few months of uncharacteristic growth patterns in early summer”, according to the latest monthly IMRG MetaPack UK Delivery Index.
“A drop between July and August is always the case as many people enter into the full swing of the holiday period and do less online when preparing to go away – and the result is that the cumulative growth rate for 2015 (Jan – August) is now back on forecast for the year at 13%, which would result in UK retailers despatching 1.05 billion parcels in 2015 through UK carrier networks,” the e-commerce association explained.
Over the last few months, e-retail parcel volumes showed a few unusual ups and downs. Between April and May, the IMRG MetaPack UK Delivery Index recorded a month-on-month drop, before going up sharply between May and June. “The usual trend is for the reverse to happen,” IMRG said.
Andrew Starkey, head of e-logistics, IMRG, commented: “It’s interesting to see that we’ve ended up on forecast at this stage of the year – with a slow start to the year being balanced out by strong growth over the early summer period and now the growth trend settling down into an established pattern again. We are now fast approaching the peak shopping period of November and December, when we anticipate that around 250 million parcels will be despatched through UK carrier networks by UK retailers if the cumulative growth rate is maintained.”
Kees de Vos, chief product and marketing officer, MetaPack, added: “We are confident that with parcel volumes already meeting the forecasts, we are still on target to reach that important 1 billion parcels dispatched mark. We wouldn’t be surprised to see higher than expected growth figures during the peak period, so now is the time for retailers to get themselves prepared to take advantage of what will be a demanding, but highly profitable period to the end of the year.”
The IMRG MetaPack UK Delivery Index was designed to enable the e-retail industry to track a wide range of key benchmark metrics to enable organisations to benchmark performance, track trends and inform strategic decisions. The index covers more than 200 retailers and an average of more than 5 million orders per month.
