30-11-2018
Royal Mail today reveals the top ten areas where shoppers made the most online purchases over Cyber Week this year.
Bargain hunters in East London top the list of the UK’s most prolific shoppers in the UK’s biggest cyber shopping event, followed by Kirkwall, Llandrindod Wells and North West London. East London tops the London list, Kirkwall the Scotland list and Llandrindod Wells the Wales list.
Cyber Week, originally a one day promotional sales event, is now widely regarded as the start of the Christmas shopping season in the UK. According to recent research* from Royal Mail, UK online shoppers spend on average almost £300 (£292) purchasing goods online at Christmas**. The main reasons people choose to shop online at Christmas are convenience-related: being able to shop from the comfort of their home (68 per cent), the ability to shop any time of the day (63 per cent) and the ease of comparing prices (48 per cent).
A spokesperson for Royal Mail said “We have looked at parcel delivery data across our huge network of delivery offices and it has revealed East London is the UK’s Cyber Week online shopping hotspot for 2018. We take the planning for the period between Black Friday and New Year's Day incredibly seriously and start planning for the next year the moment the current period is over. This year, on top of the huge number of processing and delivery sites we already operate, we have opened an extra six dedicated parcel sort centres to handle the additional volume we expect to be carrying.”
The top ten online shopping hotspots are based on analysis of parcels accepted into the Royal Mail network between 19thNovember and 27th November. Items were accepted from online retailers and ecommerce businesses for delivery via the Royal Mail Tracked 24 and Royal Mail Tracked 48 services.
Online purchases made on Black Friday, Cyber Monday and beyond will continue to be distributed by retailers and delivered by Royal Mail over the coming days, depending on consumer preferences.
During the December trading period in 2017, Royal Mail handled a staggering 149 million packages. This year, Royal Mail has opened six dedicated parcel sort centres and recruited an additional 23,000 temporary staff to support its seasonal operation. Over 1,100 Enquiry Offices will be open on Sunday 23rd December and they will all be open on Christmas Eve. These measures are about delivering the best possible service to customers throughout the Christmas period.
Source: Royal Mail Group