Record number of parcels shipped on Black Friday

NetDespatch, a parcel shipping platform for retailers, today revealed that there was a marked increase in the number of 2014 Black Friday and Cyber Monday online orders in comparison to last year. These figures are based on parcel labels printed from their SaaS platform by tens of thousands of online retailers – both large and small – fulfilling millions of online orders each day. On Black Friday orders were peaking at 17 a second whilst on Cyber Monday it hit 30 orders a second. Black Friday orders were up 50% since last year and Cyber Monday orders were up 34%.

These figures add to the well covered reports that these two days are now two of the busiest in the UK’s ecommerce calendar.

Low cost of delivery remains a big incentive for online shoppers, but speed of despatch and delivery convenience are also becoming a big influence at the checkout. Retailers can offer a choice of more than 20,000 alternative delivery locations at stores and post offices through the NetDespatch platform, giving their customers the choice to get their parcels delivered when and where they want – even on the same day as they place their order.

“Every year on our platform, Cyber Monday figures completely outstrip any industry estimates by a significant margin,” explained NetDespatch CEO, Becky Clark. “Black Friday has gained ground in the ecommerce calendar in the UK over the last few years, but this is the first time we have seen such a boom in online orders placed on that day. With ever-increasing consumer confidence in reliable delivery, fuelled both by our integrated despatch solutions, and now also by the number of delivery options available, we expect growth in the number of parcels we handle in 2015 to be exponential. NetDespatch is proud to be playing such an important part in this paradigm shift in the way the world shops.”