Moonpig has suffered a significant drop in its share price after revealing that the Royal Mail strikes, on top of the cost of living crisis, are severely impacting its festive season sales. Like most retailers, Moonpig is heavily reliant on the festive season for the lion’s share of its revenues. With consumers increasingly aware of the extent of the Royal Mail workers’ strike action, many it is expected will stop sending cards and posting gifts altogether given that few are likely to arrive.
The greetings cards and gifts specialist is, of course, not the only business suffering from disruptions due to the series of strikes by postal workers. Meticulously planned and scheduled catalogue and promotional mailing campaigns have been wrecked by the stream of strike days, with mailings landing well after cut-off dates for special offers or, we are told, not arriving at all. Parcel deliveries, including those containing perishable goods, are already being heavily impacted too.
eBay is on record as saying that its small sellers have been particularly hard hit as prospective customers become less confident in placing orders for Christmas. Whilst larger businesses may be able to source capacity with other carriers, they will likely be paying a premium to do so. Not only that, certain of Royal Mail and Parcelforce’s rival carriers are already facing greater demand than they can cope with, and their services are also likely to be badly impacted as a result.
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