Online orders saw a mini-peak in July that was 14% higher than last year, keeping the UK e-retail market on track for a strong year, according to the latest IMRG Metapack UK Delivery Index.
The higher July delivery volumes were forecast last month by the Index and will contribute to the UK e-retail market achieving an estimated year-on-year volume growth of 19%.
However, the July mini-peak did see an increase in the number of attempted or carded deliveries, with ‘carded’ deliveries around 6.9% of all orders – the highest since September 2013.
Andrew Starkey, head of e-logistics at IMRG, said: “We may speculate that the increase in carded deliveries is due to the summer holiday period, with delivery agents not on regular routes and consumers not being at home, but this did not happen last year. This is therefore an area where retailers should examine their current performance to see if there is a genuine issue.”
“Having said that, we are on track for impressive year-on-year volume growth of 19%, which will generate 895 million e-retailer generated/carrier-delivered orders.”
Angela O’Connell, Strategy and Marketing director at Metapack, said: “July’s mini peak is further confirmation that UK eCommerce is enjoying strong and sustainable growth. Our data on the challenges being experienced will confirm to retailers and carriers the importance of offering a wider choice of alternative delivery options. We’re seeing some major innovations take place in the market and it’s going to be an exciting time to track how UK e-tail performs as the Christmas Peak season gets ever closer.”
