Interesting Festive Trends from the UK

The Royal Mail went on strike over the Christmas period (as did the trains and a number of other services). According to Statista, ecommerce represents 26% of retail turnover in the UK, therefore, the Royal Mail strike was potentially very damaging, since it carries a significant percent of ecommerce deliveries. Research has shown that foot-traffic in retail outlets increased as Christmas approached, year-on-year compared to 2021 and 2019. However, many buyers had already prepared by buying over the Black Friday period (which was not affected by the strike action). The BBC picked up an increase in both reselling online and in online rental (such as costumes for events/parties). These trends suggest that the population are hunkering down in the face of inflation.

Meanwhile, hardly had Royal Mail’s strike finished than it was hit by a Russian ransomware attack that has prevented it from sending parcels to foreign destinations. So if you are awaiting that Christmas gift from Auntie Gladys in Guilford, or a parcel from Amazon UK, you may need to be patient.