eBay helps revival in Postal Orders

3 September 2006 16:12 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Postal Orders is enjoying a massive revival thanks to eBay the Post Office has said with nearly one in three Postal Orders sold now being used to pay for goods bought by online and home shoppers.

The Post Office has calculated that £104 million worth of Postal Orders will be sold to fund the UK’s online and home shopping boom this year.

"We have seen sales of Postal Orders for eBay purchases alone almost double in the last two years. They now account for seven per cent of all Postal Order sales and make up a significant proportion of the 30% used for online shopping and catalogue orders", said a spokesman for the Post Office.

Sales of postal orders have risen steadily in recent years from £322 million in 2003-04 to £334 million in 2005-06 with online shopping and mail order purchases largely responsible for the increase.

Postal Orders have been revamped to allow customers to buy one single Postal Order for any value (e.g. £6.99) up to a value of £250. Until now, they were only available in separate values and postage stamps were used to make up the odd pence difference. A security barcode has also been added to the new design so that Postal Orders can easily be tracked.

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Software, Online, eBay, Royal Mail, shopping