We started a Tamebay Black Friday Delivery Speed Test as a small scale check on how well delivery promises are being kept. We’ve seen multiple marketplaces extend delivery promises this year including both eBay and Amazon, so how well are they meeting their extended estimated delivery dates?
In the Tamebay Black Friday Delivery Speed Test we made 15 purchases across the Amazon, eBay and OnBuy marketplaces with a variety of estimated delivery dates and different carriers. We accepted whatever the first postage offered was and also, noting that on Amazon all purchases were from Amazon FBA, wanted to see if Amazon Logistics would carry out the deliveries or if alternative carriers were used.
All purchases were made between 10.15am and 10.30am on Black Friday 2020, the 27th of November. We will be regularly updating results until all items are received. Much more important than speed, what we really want to know is if delivery promises are met. It’s worth noting the estimated delivery times have been pushed out by the marketplaces to anything up to 10 days or more.
Black Friday Delivery Speed Test Results update 11th Dec
Since our last update on the 2nd of December, all bar one item has now arrived. The missing item has been sent via Royal Mail – I have a Royal Mail tracking number but no tracking events have been recorded yet.
A point of interest – all five Amazon parcels were delivered via Amazon Logistics.
Interestingly, without exception items which displayed shipping as ‘Standard’ or ‘Other 48 Courier’ were all sent via Royal Mail services bar one which was despatch via Whistl. However even the Whistl item was delivered via Royal Mail. A range of services were used including 1st Class, 2nd Class and Royal Mail 48.
One item turned up via 4PX so probably shipped from China. Tracking shows nothing happened for seven days until it entered the Royal Mail network on the 9th of December and was delivered on the 10th, 2 days later than promised.
Overall, 11 items arrived earlier than the latest estimated date, one arrived on the final estimated date, one was a day late, one was two days late and the final item is now five days late and still not arrived.
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| Amazon | Amazon FBA | Mon 7th Dec – Sat 12th Dec |
Prime Account | Sun 29th Nov | Mon 30th Nov | -12 | |
| OnBuy | Standard RM48 | Sat 5th Nov – Tues 8th Dec |
Free | Tues 1st Dec | Wed 2nd Dec | -6 | |
| OnBuy | Standard RM2nd | Fri 4th Dec – Mon 7th Dec |
£1.16 | Fri 27th Nov | Tues 1st Dec | -6 | |
| OnBuy | Standard RM1st | Thu 3rd Nov – Sat 5th Dec |
Free | Fri 27th Nov | Mon 30th Nov | -5 | |
| eBay | Royal Mail 2nd Class | Thu 3rd Dec – Sat 5th Dec |
£0.65 | Sat 28th Nov | Wed 2nd Dec | -3 | |
| eBay | Royal Mail 1st Class | Wed 2nd Dec – Fri 4th Dec |
Free | Sat 28th Nov | Wed 2nd Dec | -2 | |
| eBay | Royal Mail 2nd Class | Thu 3rd Dec – Sat 5th Dec |
Free | Fri 27th Nov | Thu 3rd Dec | -2 | |
| Amazon | Amazon FBA | Sun 29th Nov by 8:00pm | Prime Account | Sat 28th Nov | Sat 28th Nov | -1 | |
| Amazon | Amazon FBA | Sun 29th Nov | Prime Account | Sat 28th Nov | Sat 28th Nov | -1 | |
| Amazon | Amazon FBA | Sun 29th Nov | Prime Account | Sat 28th Nov | Sat 28th Nov | -1 | |
| Amazon | Amazon FBA | Sun 29th Nov | Prime Account | Sat 28th Nov | Sat 28th Nov | -1 | |
| eBay | Other 48h courier RM48 | Wed 2nd Dec – Thu 3rd Dec |
Free | Mon 30th Nov | Thu 3rd Dec | = | |
| eBay | Other 48h courier Whistl | Wed 2nd Dec – Thu 3rd Dec |
£1.95 | Mon 30th Nov | Fri 4th December | +1 | |
| OnBuy | Standard RM48 (4PX) | Sat 5th Nov – Tues 8th Dec |
Free | Fri 27th Nov | Thu 10th Dec | +2 | |
| OnBuy | Standard RM | Thu 3rd Nov – Sat 5th Dec |
Free | Sun 29th Nov |
5 Responses
currently on the above figures RM have a 10% loss rate
Really not a fair reflection though, based on a very very small data sample, plus its late and not deemed “lost”.
If RM did have a 10% loss rate, they’d not be in business!
It arrived, took 13 days from the date of posting to arrival. Full update with final results at https://channelx.world/2020/12/tamebay-black-friday-delivery-speed-test-results.html
Hi Chris,
I can see that your Amazon purchases were all FBA, for next year can you try SFP orders as well.
The first order in the list looks like it could have been SFP in that the Estimated delivery date (Mon 7th Dec – Sat 12th Dec) looks quite long, but this may be due to what the actual item was.
Lee
Hey Lee, I haven’t got a clue what happened with the first item – was cat food and I didn’t look at the delivery dates when I placed the orders so was a bit surprised when I clocked the original ETA!
Point taken about SFP, next year I’ll get a bit more organised and specifically look for SFP items, this year I was in a rush to make 15 random purchases in 15 minutes and it just turned out they were all FBA items.