Online sales in the United Kingdom have fallen for successive four months, with Amazon and Etsy have reported a marked slowdown in growth. However, e-commerce and home delivery firm ParcelHero predicts online will level out at a quarter of all retail sales. Despite shoppers flooding back to High Streets and shopping centres, online sales are still booming.

ParcelHero predicts that UK post-COVID shopping habits will result in e-commerce levelling out at around 25 per cent of all retail sales, implying UK online sales will be worth around £12.8 billion annually.

“Our figure of 25 per cent is a significant fall from the 36.1 per cent of all retail sales that online grabbed last February at the height of lockdown. However, it’s still a huge increase on the 19 per cent share online used to take, before the pandemic permanently shook up retail,” ParcelHero’s head of consumer research David Jinks was quoted as saying by UK media reports.

The company’s research shows 46 per cent of UK consumers have no intention of returning to their pre-COVID, High Street spending levels. Indeed, July saw a decrease in retail footfall compared to June.

Online sales fell 4.7 per cent in June compared to May, and have been falling every month since March, but not at such a rate as to indicate shoppers have abandoned their new online spending habits. As a result, everyone has been trying to assess the new ‘natural order’ and it’s looking like online will permanently secure around a quarter of all retail spending, according to the company.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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