Helen White, the founder of start up Houseof.com, spoke to the BBC about the jump in price of her containers and shipping costs in the import of the lights she sells.

“We were paying £1,600 per container in November, this month we’ve been quoted over £10,000”

A shortage of empty shipping containers in Asia, where the product is manufactured, and bottlenecks at the UK’s deep sea ports are behind the issue.

At the other end of the supply chain Chinese manufacturers say they are equally frustrated. Johnny Tseng is the owner and director of J&B Clothing Company Ltd, based in Hong Kong, which manufactures clothes for some of the UK’s most popular online fashion sites such as BooHoo and Pretty Little Thing.

For over 40 years he’s been supplying clothes to British Retailers but isn’t sure how much longer his family-run firm will be able to absorb inflated shipping rates. He is now being quoted $14,000 to ship a container to the UK when the usual price is $2,500.

This increase in price is affecting everyone who needs to ship goods from China which is e-commerce companies and consumers predominately.