E-commerce deliveries aid van sales

Tuesday, April 14, 2015 - 16:10 by Paul Tissington

With more people placing orders online in the UK than ever before, the demand for delivery services is constantly growing. As such, it is unsurprising that the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has reported this week that van sales are up by almost a quarter.

In the first three months of the year, the increase in van sales was at 22.3 per cent compared with 2014, with close to 100,000 new vans registered over this period.

Analysts point out that this is the highest sales figure for vans, trucks and commercial vehicles designed for delivering goods ever recorded in a quarter in the past 28 years, before which point records were not being kept.

BBC News reports that with UK consumers spending over £100 billion online in 2014 and demand still rising, the home delivery market is enjoying a boom period. This means more van drivers are required to fulfil the habits of safe shopping online that are being developed nationally.

Over the course of 2015, it is predicted that a quarter of all cash spent on shopping by consumers will flow through e-commerce sites and services. This represents a 12 per cent year on year increase, meaning that the number of commercial vehicles sold is also likely to rise.

Of course, there are other forms of delivery options which are catching on amongst consumers, with click and collect services proving to be particularly popular. So not all orders require home delivery, since people can simply pick them up at their local store.

Even with the rise of click and collect, delivery vans seem set to become an increasingly common site on the roads, which is good for new van sales figures and is also indicative of how online shopping is impacting the nation’s broader economy.