Online retail parcel volumes in Britain increased strongly by 16.8% year-on-year in February nearly doubling the annual growth in January of 8.5%, according to the IMRG MetaPack UK Delivery Index.
The delivery index results were closely aligned with last month’s online sales figures which recorded 18% growth as retailers seemed to scale back the discounting activity that has been going on for months, with average parcel order values going up 19% on February last year.
In a monthly comparison, e-parcel volumes fell by 14.4% from January. IMRG explained that “a month-on-month fall is typical at this time of year” and that the fall was “less sharp” than the 20% drop in February 2015.
The cumulative e-parcel volume growth in the delivery index for the first two months of the year is currently at 12.2%, which is in line with IMRG’s start-of-year forecast.
Andrew Starkey, head of e-logistics, IMRG, said: “2016 has the potential to be a seismic year in many respects, as there is plenty of uncertainty surrounding macro events that may influence shopper confidence. The biggest of these is the EU referendum of course, for which we now have a date set, but the outcome of the US presidential election and the changing fortunes of the Chinese economy could both have a significant impact on the performance of the retail sector here. For the time-being however, the e-logistics sector looks to be in a good place – with the percentage of on-time deliveries remaining high and almost reaching 95%.”
Kees de Vos, chief product officer at MetaPack, added: “It’s reassuring to see that delivery Index results are aligned with sales growth results and that in February we have reverted back to a more stable level of volumes. The retail landscape, however, is evolving and the impact of outside events will affect the Index this year. Change is also being brought about by new opportunities that are being afforded to consumers.”
The IMRG MetaPack UK Delivery Index has been 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. Based on MetaPack shipping data, the index covers more than 200 retailers and an average of more than 5 million orders per month.
