Will People Still Need Bags With Online Shopping?

On the face of it, no. If goods are delivered direct to the customer’s door or to an online distribution point, whether this is a participating store such as Argos or a dedicated collection point in city centres, they will come wrapped and packed but not bagged.

How Is Online Shopping Hitting Retail?

But – there is always a but. First of all, what share of retail sales are already done online? Estimates vary. In 2012 it is thought about 13% of retail sales were done online. Interestingly this is both a higher percentage than any other European country and higher even than the USA, where, despite the geographical advantages, online sales are thought to be around 9%.

Why Are Online Sales So Hard To Quantify?

Well, nearly all the figures are from surveys rather than from companies’ books. This may result in an underestimate of online shopping as much of it may be missed or be unreported. Of course, given that these are surveys of retailers and customers, it may, on the other hand, exaggerate the effect – after all, people tend to want to say they are part of a growing trend and retailers may want to convince others that their online offer is going really well even if they are privately disappointed.

There is also the difficulty of making sure the figures compare like for like. People may well be ordering things online, but some of those items are far larger or more specialised than anything that the domestic consumer would in the past have bought from retail outlets on the High Street in the past. I recently bought a ladder online, but I’ve never just popped down to the shops to buy a ladder. At the very least I would have gone to a DIY shed or a builders’ merchants. And a ladder never needed packaging in the first place.

Nevertheless, even in a stagnant or slow-growth retail sector, online shopping has grown substantially and accounts for between 10% and 15% of retail sales in the UK.

Online Hits Bag Sales – Or Does It?

The number of carrier bags used had declined from a high in 2006. This was partly the recession following the crisis in 2008, and partly supermarkets efforts to wean people off single-use plastic carriers onto ‘Bags For Life’ like cotton bags and paper carrier bags.

A substantial fraction of online shopping is foodstuffs and groceries. This will hit plastic bag use but have little or no effect on paper, cotton and jute bags.

Clothes and fashion sales online may reduce high-quality paper carrier bags, but fashion and high-end clothes and shoes is one area where people still go shopping on real High Streets and in real shopping malls – they want to try it on, try another one on, go back to the first one, make sure they look good, and enjoy the experience. So luxury bags are still in demand for clothing, boutiques and fun shopping.

Bags Are Still Vital To Business

The takeaway food bag, the impulse-buy gift bag, the presentation bag, and the wine bag are all largely untouched by online sales. People who were buying wine by the case even before online shopping weren’t into wine gift bags anyway.

Bags are still essential to High Street retailers, airport shopping, retail outlets, shopping malls, gift shops, as well as for take-away food outlets, independent bookshops, tourist organisations, and for exhibitions, conferences and promotional events.

A printed paper, cotton or jute bag remains a great way to make your brand work for you and get your message across.