Just as Royal Mail announce extended opening times to enable consumers to collect their parcels in the run up to Christmas, Shutl reveal that 95% of consumers would potentially consider going to another retailer if a site couldn’t offer delivery that suited their needs. Two out of five shoppers said they’d ‘definitely’ shop elsewhere if the last mile delivery wasn’t right for them.
The findings come at a time when stakes couldn’t be higher. The survey, carried out by survey consultants Censuswide, also shows that ecommerce momentum is continuing to grow at pace with over half consumers expecting to shop online more this Christmas compared to 2015. This is a substantial increase on last year’s figure when only 30% of shoppers expected to increase their level of online festive shopping from the previous year.
The pressure on retailers is increased further with more than 42% of shoppers having higher online delivery expectations than in 2015.
What this means for you is that now, more than ever before, you need to offer alternative delivery options not only on your website but also on marketplaces. If you sell on Amazon using FBA then your job is easy, Amazon offer so many options that there’s bound to be a convenient option.
If you self fulfil your Amazon orders it’s not quite as easy. Amazon don’t make it simple for you to define delivery options let alone specify fast delivery.
On eBay you can enter as many options as you like, but rather than using the “Other Courier” option you should specify the carrier you’re going to use. DPD might be great in your area and Yodel a disaster, but Yodel may well be my favourite so tell me who my parcel will arrive with.
Don’t forget to ensure you offer Click & Collect at Argos on eBay and give a choice of express and standard services for people to choose from. You may think your products never need an urgent delivery, but if my only day off is Wednesday I might choose a 24 hour service on a Tuesday just so that I’m at home and avoid a 50 mile round trip to a courier depot to collect my parcel.
Shutl are of course owned by eBay and are building the new eBay shipping experience which we are looking forward to seeing in 2017.
3 Responses
Yes you are right DPD are also a disaster in our area so will definitely choose Yodel as do all of my business colleagues and friends. We always get good service from Yodel I think its percepetion and media frenzy hype.
We also get good service from PF in our area and I would even choose these before DPD.
I struggle with anything but RMG for what we sell, 95% is large letter size and no other couriers even compete. We even looked at getting Amazon FBA to send our stock from other markets but they were too expensive and Slow, and I am not exactly impressed how they treat their drivers.
We need to get so much signed also so this is pain and it will cost us sales and is not good for a lot of customers, but since marketplaces or RMG have never dealt with mail theft what can you do.
We actually want to drop FBA all together, apart from maybe peak they have not been good last few months, to many customer damaged items coming back to many delayed shipments. to little margin left over.
Tracking without signing is the answer for us, also in Ireland people can buy secure lockers for their homes for parcels, some people don’t even have letterboxes, more pick up points in rural areas would also be good. Our shopping habits have evolved our delivery methods have not.
Consumers can carry on having high delivery expectations but at what cost I say, I don’t like seeing drivers “under pressure, underpaid and probably self employed” bombing up and down our residential street and 40mph just to deliver a toothbrush some things in life can wait.
Royal Mail also offer a click and collect service where customers can choose to collect their parcel from a Post office branch or a Royal Mail Enquiry office.