Royal Mail has said it is introducing a Sunday parcel delivery service for major retailers.

In the next month, the postal service has said a number of retail brands will begin trialling it's new Sunday delivery service across the UK.

The trial is the first salvo in Royal Mail's move to tap into the seven-day-a-week delivery market as more and more consumers expect Sunday deliveries as part of their online shopping experience.

Royal Mail processed unprecedented parcel volumes in 2020, delivering 496 million parcels in the third quarter ending December 27.

It said the introduction of a seven-day parcel delivery market for major retail customers is one of the ways it is responding to the marked increase in parcel volumes and changing customer expectations for more frequent and more convenient deliveries.

Nick Landon, chief commercial officer at Royal Mail, said: "The UK already trusts us to deliver their purchases six days a week both quickly and conveniently. Now for the first time our posties will be doing the same thing seven days a week.

"The last year has reset so many customer expectations and the desire for even more convenient and even more frequent parcel deliveries has certainly been one of them.

"We always listen to our customers, both senders and recipients, and the ask here was clear: we love what you do Monday to Saturday, so please do the same on a Sunday. So that's what we're doing, as quickly as possible so we can offer it to more and more customers across the course of this year. It's another really exciting change delivered by our trusted people and network."