Online delivery frustrations hitting retailers hard

The final mile is often the final straw for many UK consumers, according to research by eDelivery Expo involving 2,000 people.

Poor online delivery practices have made 18% of respondents stop shopping with certain retailers, with only 4% of them turning to Click and Collect and 4% purchasing in-store. 29% of Brits admit to telling a friend or loved one to avoid a particular retailer because of a bad experience. Having the wrong package delivered tops the list of annoyances at 75%, followed by missed deliveries being returned to a depot far from the recipient’s home (74%). Damaged parcels comes third (71%), with parcels left in inappropriate places at 53% and having to pay a premium for next day delivery at 49%.

Many retailers have begun experimenting with drones and autonomous vehicles but consumers have their concerns around reliability. 49% think autonomous delivery would be less reliable than human delivery, whilst a third think it’ll be equally reliable. 34% say they would always trust a human over a machine to make a judgement call on what is best to do with their delivery, with a quarter being worried that their package would get lost or damaged. Despite these reservations, 37% accept that autonomous deliveries will be the norm within the next five years. 

“These findings highlight that negative shipping experiences do more than simply cost retailers money due to increased costs of returns and logistics: they adversely affect repeat purchases and ultimately the lifetime value of the customer,” says Darko Atijas, Sales and Marketing Director at Neopost Shipping Europe, who will be exhibiting at eDelivery Expo 2018 next month.