FEATURE: OMNICHANNEL RETAIL
T
he Office for National Statistics (ONS) retail bulletin reveals retailers had an unexpectedly happy new year this
January. Retail sales volumes (the amount we bought) are estimated to have risen by 1.8% in January 2026 over December 2025.
The home delivery expert
Parcelhero says that, looking at the three-month period from November 2025 to January 2026, sales volumes were also up by 0.1% compared to the previous three-month period. “Better still,” says David Jinks M.I.L.T., Parcelhero’s Head of Consumer Research, “volumes for November-January were also up 2.6% year-on-year (YOY), meaning Brits bought more items over the Christmas/Black Friday peak and New Year than they did a year ago. “It’s e-commerce that looks to be
the retail star leading us into 2026. Non-store (the category which is primarily made up of online sales) sales volumes rose 3.4% in January over December. “Even more encouragingly, online sales values (the amount we spent) rose by 1.3% this January and by 14.7% when compared to January 2025. This was the largest YOY rise since April 2021 and may give retailers hope that consumer confidence is finally on the rise. “It was a similar picture comparing the three months to January 2026, when the amount we spent online rose by 1.8% compared to the previous three-month period to October 2025. What’s more, online spending rose by a sparkling 10.8% compared to November 2024 to January 2025.
More headwinds to come Overall retail sales volumes also rose by 2.5% in February year- on-year and the value of online sales ballooned by 11.4%. But the Parcelhero cautions that the Iran conflict could take the wind from retail’s sails.
The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) retail sales bulletin for February 2026 reveals a rise in the amount Brits bought (volume) and the amount we spent (value) compared to the same month last year. The picture looked particularly healthy for e-commerce sales, says the home delivery expert Parcelhero. It cautions, however, that February’s gains could be reversed if the Iran conflict has the impact many analysts fear. Jinks continues: “On the face of it,
there is much to cheer about in the retail sales estimates for February.
28 DIY WEEK APRIL 2026
HAS RETAIL REGAINED ITS MOJO? ONLINE ENJOYS BIGGEST YOY SPENDING INCREASE
Retailers may have entered 2026 with a degree of apprehension but high street and online sales jumped in January, says the home delivery expert Parcelhero. So could 2026 be the year retail gets its mojo back?
Sales volumes – the amount we bought – rose by 2.5% year-on-year (YOY) overall, and the picture was even rosier for e-commerce sales. The amount Brits spent (known as online spending values) leaped by 11.4% YOY, comparing February 2026 with February 2025. “Of course, monthly retail figures
are notoriously volatile, which is why the ONS is increasingly concentrating on three-monthly figures. Here again, though, overall retail sales volumes were 3% higher for the three months to February 2026 than for the same period last year. Even more strikingly, online spending values soared 12.1% YOY when comparing the three months to February 2026 with the same three- month period to February 2025. “However, the picture was a little more mixed if we compare
February’s results to the previous month. Overall retail sales volumes are estimated to have fallen by 0.4% in February compared to January, with non-store retailing volumes (the category which is primarily made up of online sales) falling by 0.5%. Encouragingly, though the amount of goods we bought online in February may have slipped, online sales values (the amount of money we spent) rose by 0.6% over January, perhaps indicating we were prepared to splash out a little more on higher value items once the January sales were finished. “Overall, these figures show retail in February 2026 was considerably healthier than in the same month last year. The elephant in the room, however, is President Trump’s attack on Iran. Right at the end of the month, on 28 February, the
US and Israel launched surprise air strikes on Iran and the conflict has widened since then. The retail estimates for March are expected on 24 April. These will give an early indication of how significantly consumer confidence has been knocked.
“Ultimately, however fickle or
strong key retail periods of the year prove to be, it’s those stores with a combined high street and online offering that are most protected against unexpected events. Parcelhero’s influential report ‘2030: Death of the High Street’, has been discussed in Parliament. It reveals that retailers must develop an omnichannel approach, embracing both online and physical store sales. Read the full report at:
https://newsroom.parcelhero.com/ deathofthehighstreetreport.pdf
www.diyweek.net
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