Online shopping helps Royal Mail enjoy bumper Christmas period

Monday, January 27, 2014 - 16:02 by Simon Crisp

Last month, roughly 115 million packages were delivered by Royal Mail, with the UK's love of shopping online helping the now privatised company to reach new heights of activity, according to the Independent.

The run up to Christmas is usually a busy one for all delivery firms, so the long established infrastructure of Royal Mail is a bit of a boon when this peak period arrives.

In one 24 hour period, the organisation was responsible for managing 10 million individual parcels, with standard postal deliveries also hitting a high as a result of all the seasonal cards being sent across the country.

While revenues were up across the board at the firm, this is largely attributed to the fact that it now charges people based on the physical size of packages, rather than the weight of the items being delivered.

One of the benefits of Christmas 2013 was that the weather conditions were relatively mild, meaning that deliveries of products ordered via safe shopping online could be completed in a timely fashion. While there were storms, the issues caused by snow and ice in previous years did not arise.

Of course, Royal Mail is in an interesting position, because while, overall, there is a noted decline in the number of letters being sent thanks to the rise of digital communications like email and instant messaging, the internet is also helping it to find new revenue streams, as e-commerce activity continues to grow.

The good news for consumers is that the delivery market is still a competitive one and Royal Mail is by no means the only option, so when buying online, you should have enough choice to keep costs low and speed up the arrival of any packages you order.