UK's online retailers to ship out 1 billion parcels in 2015

Online retailers in the UK are set to ship a record number of parcels by the end of this year, hitting one billion shipments, according to the estimates of a new study carried out by IMRG and MetaPack.

According to the IMPRG MetaPack UK Delivery Index, 2015 will become a record breaking year for online retail orders, after witnessing volumes increasing 9.5 percent in January compared to the same month last year. Although this growth is still less than the predicted 13 percent increase previously predicted by the index, it is still higher than the 3.8 percent increase reported last January.

The index also established an increase in the average order value from online retail orders as well as a rise in the delivery quality of service offered by UK online retailers. "Although this is short of our 13 percent forecast growth for the full year, the pace of online shopping always picks in the spring so we expect this figure to increase to match our forecast fairly quickly," said Andrew Starkey, Head of e-logistics at IMRG in a statement.

"It is pleasing to see that after the trauma of Black Friday, the UK carrier industry has recovered quickly and the level of on time delivery and attempted delivery at 92.5 percent is at its highest January level since 2012." Both firms state that the ingrained trend leans toward a drop in online retail orders compared to the previous Christmas month of December, with this January month-on-month volumes slipping by 33 percent.

"The story of January 2015 is how UK retailers and carriers are continuing to cooperate ever more closely to sustain the successful rebound from the challenges of early December," added Angela O’Connell, Strategy and Marketing Director, MetaPack. "A year-on-year January increase in parcels dispatched is a great way to begin a year when we expect more innovation in delivery choices to enable the growth we and the IMRG are forecasting."