Ignore the doom-mongers - e-commerce had a strong December and crushed Christmas 2024

27th January 2026

Reports of online's death this peak season were greatly exaggerated, says Parcelhero. The latest ONS retail figures show 2025’s results smashed 2024’s December and golden quarter results.

There’s still gold in retail’s golden quarter, says the home delivery expert Parcelhero. Forget talk of ‘Drab December’ - online peak sales values for October-December 2025 surged by 8.4% compared to the same period in 2024.

The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) retail sales bulletin for December 2025 reveals online in particular enjoyed a mini-boom, while overall sales for online and High Street stores were also up in December 2025 compared to both the previous month and December 2024.

Parcelhero’s Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks M.I.L.T., says: ‘Despite talk about a "Drab December" and lacklustre Christmas peak, the latest ONS retail sales figures show that online sales had a strong December. Non-store retailers (the majority of which are online) saw their sales volumes (the amount we bought) rise 4.2% in December compared to November.

The end of the so-called “golden quarter” was literally that, with online jewellers reporting a resurgence in demand for precious metals in December.

‘In terms of online sales values (the amount we spent), spending was up 1.8% in December compared to November and, encouragingly, soared a whopping 11.1% compared to December 2024.

‘E-commerce sellers enjoyed a strong Christmas-BFCM (Black Friday/Cyber Monday) peak overall, in terms of the amount Brits spent online. The October-December golden quarter saw sales values rise by 2.1% over the previous quarter (though they slipped -1.5% in terms of sales volumes) and values also rose an impressive 8.4% over 2024’s peak period.

‘Nor did online’s successful December come at the expense of High Street sales. In fact, overall retail sales volumes (in-store and online) were up 0.4% in December compared to November and 2.5% over December 2024. In terms of the entire peak season, while volumes did fall slightly (-0.3%) against the previous quarter (July-September, 2025) they were up 2.1% against 2024’s seasonal peak. Likewise, in terms of the value of total sales (in-store and online) December’s spending topped November’s by 0.8%.

‘With December being the final month of 2025, the ONS also had some good news looking back on the year as a whole. Retail sales volumes overall rose by 1.3% in 2025 over 2024 with non-store sales (mostly online) in particular rising 3.6% over the previous year.

‘In short, online sellers can be heartened by this largely positive set of results and can plan for Christmas 2026 with more confidence!

‘Ultimately, however fickle or strong key retail periods of the year prove to be, it's those stores with a combined High Street and online offering that are most protected against unexpected events.

Parcelhero’s influential report “2030: Death of the High Street” has been discussed in Parliament. It reveals that retailers must develop an omnichannel approach, embracing both online and physical store sales. Read the full report at: https://www.parcelhero.com/content/downloads/pdfs/high-street/deathofthehighstreetreport.pdf