Increase in click-and-collect orders as postal strikes cause Christmas delivery chaos

Big name retail chains are reporting an increase in people visiting in person and using click and collect as the Christmas delivery crisis spreads from Royal Mail strike delays to problems with over stretched courier companies, i can reveal.

Next-day delivery services have been suspended by some firms as couriers report being overwhelmed by the strikes, with online retailers bringing forward their cut-off dates for final Christmas online orders.

Around 100,000 postal workers at Royal Mail walked off the job last Wednesday and Thursday, the latest in a wave of strikes that have been continuing since summer following a long-running dispute over pay and conditions.

Among the major retailers impacted during what should be their busiest time of the year are Marks & Spencer, Waterstones and toy shop chain The Entertainer, who have all reported more people coming into their stores.

Gary Grant, founder of The Entertainer, told i that delivery delays caused by the industrial action and its knock-on effects were pulling customers back to physical shops after the pandemic.

“The couriers are overwhelmed with volume [due to the strikes], the snow has slowed things down and because people are starting to hear on the radio and television that internet parcels are being delayed this is now starting to move them sooner to go back to shops,” he said.

“Because when they buy something, they carry it out of the shop, they have no concern about it being delivered. This is not a gut feeling. I am seeing as a proportion of our overall income that our shop sales are growing and our web sales are declining compared to this time last year.”

Mr Grant said his shops had done well compared to last year both this week and last week.

Meanwhile a Marks and Spencer spokesperson told i that click and collect orders were up by 10 per cent in their stores compared to 2021, equalling two million extra customers.

And Waterstones chief operating officer Kate Skipper said their book shops had been “very busy indeed”, foot traffic was “buoyant”, with people who the company would usually expect to ask for delivery coming in instead.

“People do still want to have that tie to their local branch and the convenience that collecting from a shop and buying from a shop has versus trying to ensure you’re at home for the delivery guy,” she told i.

“With the rail strikes, people are just trying to shop when it’s convenient to them which is obviously their local high streets. Click and collect has been very strong, which are orders you would always assume people would order online usually.”

Marks and Spencer said the use of click and collect was “definitely more pronounced than last year” though it was “not correlating around the specific strike dates”. The spokesperson said the comparative lack of Covid could also be factor.

The country’s whole parcel delivery system, which boomed during the pandemic, appears to be creaking under the weight of the postal dispute.

Firms such as DPD and Evri have pointed to the extra demand created by Royal Mail strikes when explaining recent delays and suspensions of next day deliveries.

Retailers are having to adapt. The Entertainer has had to extend its standard delivery timeframe to between five and seven days rather than three to five days citing delivery delays due to the strikes.

Mr Grant said the company was also thinking of bringing forward its cut-off dates for final Christmas orders to Monday, 19 December.

“That’s at least three days earlier this year that what we have historically stopped guaranteeing for Christmas, but only because we don’t want to let customers down,” he said.

Ms Skipper said Waterstones was taking a similar stance. “Most people are accepting that we’ve reached the last point of being guaranteed delivery for online orders, and we don’t want to leave anyone disappointed for Christmas,” she said.

“There’s a general view that people no longer want to take the risk over these delivery delays, in the same way people are seeing delays in their own Christmas cards through the post.”