E-commerce market share highest since shops reopened after Covid, says Parcelhero

Rezul -- The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) retail sales bulletin shows June was a standout month for UK e-commerce, with online sales climbing to their highest share of retail spending since the pandemic, says the home delivery expert Parcelhero.

Overall retail sales volumes – the amount of goods bought – rose by 1% in June 2026, following a 1.2% rise in May, comfortably beating economists' expectations of a monthly decline. But it was online retail that really stood out, says Parcelhero.

Parcelhero's Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks M.I.L.T., says: 'Non-store retailers – the category made up predominantly of online sellers – saw sales volumes jump 4.4% over the month, the sector's biggest monthly boost in some time. As a result, the proportion of all retail spending made online rose to 29.4% in June, its highest level since April 2021, the month when non-essential stores finally reopened after lockdown.

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'The ONS said that the heatwave, sales promotions and World Cup fever all played their part, with strong demand for outdoor products, air conditioning units, clothing and sports merchandise. Clothing and footwear sales rose by 1.9% over the month, their biggest monthly rise since September 2025.

'It wasn't just the volume of online shopping that grew, either. The amount spent online – known as "online spending values" – rose by 3.8% in Quarter 2 (April to June) 2026 compared with Quarter 1 (January to March) 2026, and was up 11.7% on Quarter 2 2025. Within the monthly figures, online spending values rose by 2.8% over the month to June 2026, a very healthy increase of 14.4% compared with June 2025.

'That combination of rising volumes and rising values is exactly what retailers want to see – it suggests shoppers weren't just switching from the High Street to the same items online, they were prepared to spend more freely too.

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'What's striking is how quickly online's share of spending can move. Just a few months ago we were talking about online's share dipping; now, at close to 30p in every £1 spent in the shops, it's back near levels we haven't seen since lockdown.

'For retailers, the message is clear: retailers who can scale their fulfilment and delivery operations up and down quickly, rather than being caught flat-footed by a heatwave or a big sporting event, stand to gain the most. Parcelhero has just released "2030: The High Street Fights Back?", a follow-up to its widely read 2016 report "2030: The Death of the High Street". The full report is available at https://www.parcelhero.com/en-gb/resources/ebooks/2030-the-high-street-fights-back