Hermes is set to launch a Sunday delivery service. That will make it the first consumer delivery company to offer its retail customers a 7- day service in the UK right now. Older retailers will remember that Royal Mail used to offer such a service back in the 19th century.
Carole Woodhead, CEO at Hermes UK, said: “The retail sector has been trading 7 days a week for a long time now and by introducing this service we are giving online shoppers the same service. We recently commissioned some independent research that found that two thirds of online shoppers found Sunday deliveries appealing. Quite simply it fits around their increasingly busy lifestyles and is often a day they can guarantee being at home. As a result we believe our new Sunday service will increase the first time delivery success rate and overall customer satisfaction.”
From the publicity material we have received, it’s unclear when this new service will start.
This makes a great deal of sense, needless to say. For people in work, a weekday delivery between 8 and 6 is unlikely to find them at home. But I wonder if the opportunity here for couriers isn’t with days but with hours. And even delays.
Consumers should have choices to opt for a particular hour for delivery, or even a particular half day. And if I buy something on a Tuesday and know I’m out all week, I’d like to choose a Saturday or Sunday delivery, even though it will mean a bit of a wait. A wait is better than a ludicrous round trip to a depot.
So, welcome news for sure. But I think the focus needs to be on offering cleverer choices for buyers.
8 Responses
It is a shame this is being done by one of the couriers with such a bad reputation. Maybe I am wrong, but surely Hermes and Yodel are similar for service quality from what I ready?
I don’t think you can slim it down to the customer choosing which hour the delivery comes and on what day when they actually order. You only have to see the courier vans now full up and flying around to get everything done in one day. To allow this service would mean a lot less parcels on each van and a lot more costs for us retailers to fund that service. For me the way DPD do it is good enough – the customer getting a delivery day when ordering and then a text or email with the time of that day first thing on the morning is great and something that is really making us consider DPD.
I also wonder how much more E-commerce can grow, surely it is getting towards the peak ?
This is a good reaction after Amazon’ s decision to deliver on Sundays. It is interesting to see how Amazon is constantly evolving and moving eCommerce forward.
I can foresee other couriers doing the same.
The problem with Hermes is the service is very dependent on the local self employed person delivering parcels in their Nissan Micra. Some do it part time after work , some do it full time working long hours for what has been claimed to be below minimum wage after expenses. I suspect expecting them to also work Sundays is not going to result in an improved service.
we will offer clever choices to buyers when the clever sods dont expect delivery for nowt ,
Good News for us, we use myhermes a lot.
The budget couriers can bash parcels around a bit, but the £1-2 you save is a lot more than the cost of a little extra packaging.
Sunday deliveries are a good thing, but I think we would have to warn the customers. Many who have callers to the door on a Sunday might not want to answer.