Delivery Report - Comparison Shows Retailers Taking Action
19 Jul 06
The majority of UK online retailers have been making efforts to fine-tune their delivery processes over the past twelve months, according to Snow Valley’s latest e-commerce report, 'e-Delivery in the UK 2006'
The report revisits the 100 online retailers that Snow Valley evaluated in the 2005 edition, to gauge what changes and improvements have been made.
The report shows that, although the overall picture has remained fairly static, behind the scenes many retailers have been making a whole host of changes to their delivery processes:
- 65% of the retailers had altered their home page links to delivery information during the year
- 37% had changed their delivery charges
- ‘Billing address only’ delivery had declined in popularity – only 9% of retailers had this policy, down from 17% in 2005
- Online order tracking has increased – 67% of sites offered this, compared to 59% last year
The overall picture, however, remained very similar to last year, in many cases disguising the activity that had gone on:
- 43% of retailers offered no delivery options, compared to 46% in 2005. However, 9% had withdrawn options previously in place, whilst others had added more.
- Free delivery was available on 13% of sites in 2006, the same as in 2005. However, 5 retailers had introduced free delivery and 5 had withdrawn it.
- Multiple address delivery had been implemented on 5 sites during the year, but it had been removed by another 3.
Snow Valley MD, Carlo Rimini, said; "Our report shows that retailers are actively trying out new ideas when it comes to delivery, working hard to find the right approach for their specific customers and products. I think that this will continue – there is no one-size-fits-all blueprint for online retail success and understanding what works in your market is crucial."
"Having said that, online order tracking has clearly increased in popularity over the past 12 months, just as delivery to billing address only is clearly declining. I strongly suspect that if we repeat this report next year we will see such momentum gathering in other areas as well."
Read the e-Delivery in the UK 2006 report