The result of a ballot on a national postal strike was expected as Retail Week went to press, but retailers have already been hit by a wave of local strikes.

What is the situation at present?

A series of local strikes by Royal Mail staff who are members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) over salary and working conditions is threatening to disrupt Christmas post. At the time of going to press, the union – which has a membership of 121,000 – was running a national strike ballot.

What has been the impact so far?

Royal Mail admitted to renting extra warehouse space in Peterborough and Dartford to store a backlog of post that has accumulated since local strikes began on June 19. According to the CWU, the huge quantity of unsorted letters, parcels and bills could affect Christmas deliveries.

In mid-September, Royal Mail disclosed that one in eight items of post had not reached their addressees, and the backlog reportedly totalled 25 million items.

Strikes in 235 night offices, distribution and mail centres have occurred across the UK.

How are retailers being affected?

Buyers and sellers on eBay have already had transactions affected by the dispute. Retailers and e-tailers reliant on Royal Mail to facilitate deliveries and returns – such as Amazon – could be hit worse if a national strike goes ahead because it would affect trading during the peak festive period.

Walter Blackwood, managing director of parcel delivery service Collect+, says: “Local areas in particular are likely to be hit quite badly, and pre-Christmas is a bad time because it will affect returns. The big e-tailers could be impacted quite severely by this, but I think they will probably look to transfer traffic where they can.”

What are retailers doing to counter the strikes?

Retailers that rely on Royal Mail for their deliveries and count on the Christmas period to boost sales during the recession could find a national strike detrimental to their top line. They may have to organise another way of organising delivery and returns.

So far, Evans Cycles has posted a banner on its website declaring it uses UPS rather than Royal Mail, while catalogue retailer Scotts of Stow has threatened to cancel its Christmas mail campaign and opt for internet advertising if CWU action continues.

The extent of potential disruption has yet to become clear. Blackwood says: “If you look at it simply, being unable to supply slows down the rate of growth. Retailers should review how they choose their parcel carriers going forward.”