IMRG reports “unseasonal” drop in UK online delivery volumes for May

There was an unexpected slowdown in UK online retail volumes in May, according to data from the IMRG MetaPack UK Delivery Index. In a statement published on Friday (19 June), IMRG speculated that “the unsettled weather and general election may have impacted upon shopper behaviour”.

The decline in month-on-month sales of 2.9% was the first time that the Index had not recorded growth between April and May. This dip also reduced the cumulative year-on-year growth to only 9% – down from the 10.9% reported last month and significantly behind the start-of-year forecast of 13%.

However, IMRG had some positive news for delivery companies: “The quality of delivery service, as defined by ‘on-time delivery or attempted delivery’ remains high at over 94% and with failed delivery attempts staying low, UK shoppers can now expect nearly 89% of their orders to arrive on time and to their expectation at the first attempt.”

Andrew Starkey, head of e-logistics at IMRG: “Previous experience shows that in the months and weeks preceding an election retail performance slows, then bounces back as consumer confidence returns. But the concern is that this might have longer term implications because in online retail the month of June is traditionally lower than May but this year we must hope that, with the election period now out of the way, the market recovers sufficiently to put us back on track for the rest of the year.”