Falling Revenues and Delayed Post

The Post Office website has the latest recommended posting dates for all services to UK addresses for 2022. For Royal Mail 2nd Class & 2nd Class signed-for, the last date is Monday 12 December. For Royal Mail Ist Class & Ist Class signed-for, the lsat date is Friday 16 December

Unfortunately, the Post Office does not deliver letters. That is the function of Royal Mail, a separate company. And Royal Mail have planned strikes on December 1st, 9th, 11th, 14th, 15th, 23rd and 24th December.

What effect do Royal Mail strikes have on the dates the Post Office recommends? We ourselves have customers waiting for deliveries of orders. More than that, we are waiting for orders of proofs from our printer.

Meanwhile, the greeting card industry magazine has just published its invitation to greeting card shops to complete the annual survey into the health of the independent greetings retail sector.

Well we already have one indicator, and that is the forecast for Moonpig. PG Buzz reports that the cost-of-living crisis and Royal Mail strikes have caused Moonpig to cut its revenue forecast for the year from £350million to £320m.

Whether it is a greeting cards shop or an online business, at some stage a card will be popped into a postbox. Knowing the delays caused by strikes and an overburdened system is a blow to retailers. It doesn’t take much imagination to know that customers are weighing up the decision whether to send a card that might be delayed or worse.