online shopping

A 15% surge in online retail returns is expected to be handled by parcel carriers today (6 December), following the high volumes processed on ‘Cyber Monday’.

A peak in the number of items being returned is expected to be handled on ‘Boomerang Thursday’, CollectPlus research has revealed. The firm found that a quarter of online shoppers are happy to return items today as they are confident they will receive replacements before Christmas.

Software firm MetaPack revealed that over 2 million retail parcels were delivered in the last week of November, a 19% growth on last year’s figures.

The number of parcels sent to addresses within the UK between 25 November and 1 December rose by 10.8% year-on-year. During the same period there was nearly an 80% growth in the number of retail deliveries to international addresses, with UK retail parcels delivered to the USA increasing three-fold.

British Retail Consortium director general Stephen Robertson said: “These figures really drive home the UK’s position at the vanguard of online retailing, both home and abroad.”

The region with the highest volumes during the seven day period was the south-east of England, with nearly 300,000 parcels delivered.

Scotland saw the highest increase in total volumes, with a 451% rise on the figures from the last week of November 2011. Northern Ireland, however, saw the sharpest fall in volumes, down 74.7% from last year’s figures.

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