Postal strike 'real threat' to online retail
Royal Mail strikes pose "real threat" to online retail, experts claim
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By Adam Leveridge. |  |
Friday, 23, Oct 2009 02:47
By Jack Clark.
With the postal strike already in its second day, and further action planned for next week, e-retailers are getting worried, inthenews.co.uk has learned.
Editor of Retail Week, Tim Danaher, said the escalation of the strikes posed a "real threat" to online retail.
In research carried out by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), 70 per cent of its members said they relied on Royal Mail for at least half their business post. A survey for industry body IMRG showed that 77 per cent of its members believed the strike action could dampen Christmas sales.
Mr Danaher warned that as the strikes continue and consumer confidence falls "a lot of the hard work done on online retail over the last few years could be undone".
Lisa Berwin, a senior reporter at Retail Week, pointed out that the Royal Mail was not the only postage solution available for e-retailers.
"A lot of them have alternatives in place," she told inthenews.co.uk.
"If you look at fashion retailers, especially for bigger items they wouldn't have used Royal Mail for that anyway, but what is an issue for them is return as when people return items by Royal Mail, and that can be a problem."
A spokesman for the Communication Workers Union (CWU) defended the action, over working conditions and modernisation, saying: "It's the Royal Mail causing the dispute, not the union."
The union claimed reports from the picket lines showed the public to be "very supportive" of its workers.
Meanwhile, Royal Mail said the group was liaising with its customers.
"We are keeping all our customers informed, and working hard to minimise disruption for all our customers," said the spokesman.
The Royal Mail's managing director, Mark Higson, said in a statement the continuing strike action was "appalling but sadly not surprising".
The CWU's spokesman added: "Royal Mail need to resolve this dispute as quickly as possible."
Meanwhile, gumtree.com, the person-to-person e-retail site, sees the strike as an opportunity.
"Anyone who uses gumtree.com can trade locally, face-to-face, meaning there is no need to post or courier items," a spokesman said.
"Twelve million people regularly use our site and we expect the postal strikes will encourage more people to connect locally."