Monday morning is now peak e-shopping time - report

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
May 2, 2023

How to offset those Monday morning blues. Home delivery firm ParcelHero says 10am on the first working day of the week is now the most popular time for consumer online purchases.

Its data reveals online sales jump by 15-20% above average between 10-12am on Mondays, “because the many e-commerce sellers who use our service to fulfil orders are booking pickups for sales that have just come in. [So Monday morning] has now usurped Thursday, which was the pre-pandemic peak,” said the company.

As well as citing the major shift in working practices since the pandemic, ParcelHero’s Head of Consumer Research, David Jink, points to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) that reveal 67.1% of workers now have access to a computer at work, a figure that grew rapidly during Covid as more businesses became reliant on e-commerce sales and Zoom calls.

“Interestingly, it’s microbusinesses employing less than 10 people who have the highest proportion of staff with access to a computer. Some 74.7% of very small businesses give their staff access to the internet, as opposed to just 63.1% of large companies employing over 1,000 people,” he noted.

He also says the shift to working from home post Covid has now become far more established. With around 38% of staff doing so one or more days a week, with Monday now the most popular day. 

That means many people shopping on a Monday morning may be doing during working hours but are are likely to be browsing at home. 

Parcel Hero also cited retired people shopping online in ever-increasing numbers. Charity Age UK says 58% of over-75s now regularly use a computer.