Down but not out
UK online sales in January tumbled by more than 20% against last year, but “reports of e-commerce’s death are greatly exaggerated”, says ParcelHero.
In a statement sent to Post&Parcel today (21 February), ParcelHero noted that new UK government figures show January’s online retail sales collapsed by 4.5% against the previous month and 20.8% against January 2021 – “but that doesn’t mean the e-commerce genie has been put back in the bottle”.
ParcelHero’s Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks M.I.L.T., explained: “Online sales boomed to an extraordinary degree during the lockdowns. We are now seeing a natural rebalancing, as people return to High Streets that feel safer and more normal with the end of most Covid measures.
“However, online sales still represent 25.3% of all total retail sales, a considerable increase on the 19.8% online took back in February 2020, just before Covid hit the UK. The e-commerce genie has been released from the bottle, and it can never be put back.
“Of course, we expect to see further falls in year-on-year online sales throughout 2022, as retail adjusts to the new norm, but e-commerce sales will hold firm at around 25% of the retail market. Shoppers have discovered how convenient online ordering is for many kinds of shopping, from gifts to groceries.
“We all hope for a High Street boom to bring life back to our town centres, and there are signs that shop closures are now slowing down. However, it should no longer be the case that one type of shopping wins at the expense of the other. Retailers are now aligning their physical and online sales more successfully, which should create a sustained period of growth in multichannel sales, led by initiatives such as improved ‘Buy Online Pick Up in Store’ (BOPIS) options.”
ParcelHero’s report 2030: Death of the High Street, which calls for retailers to develop an omnichannel approach that embraces both online and physical store sales is available at:
https://www.parcelhero.com/content/downloads/pdfs/high-street/deathofthehighstreetreport.pdf
