Vimcar research: UK e-commerce SMEs bring delivery in-house
Many UK e-commerce businesses are taking delivery into their own hands, according to new research from Vimcar.
In a survey of 100 small and medium sized UK e-commerce retailers, almost all experienced an increase in online orders since March 2020, and two thirds have had to invest in their own delivery fleet to meet customer demand.
The research comes at a time when retailers are grappling with the impact of delivery driver shortages, Brexit uncertainty, supply chain issues and Covid restrictions.
Increased customer demand over the past 18 months has led the majority of respondents to hire their own staff to fulfil orders rather than outsourcing delivery, with over a fifth of those surveyed hiring between 5 and 10 new fleet drivers.
Having gone down this route, 80% of e-commerce SMEs are positive about the next 12 months, despite ongoing economic issues.
At the same time, though, three quarters of respondents said that expanding their delivery fleet had made admin more difficult to manage.
Ronald Clancy, UK Country Manager at Vimcar, says: “It is promising to see that business is thriving for e-commerce retailers despite an extremely turbulent 18 months.”
“There remain many wider economic challenges for small businesses to overcome and what this research shows is that many e-commerce SMEs are having to rapidly adapt their business models in order to remain agile and continue to meet customer demand.”
Over a third of survey respondents expect demand in delivery to increase further.
Clancy adds: “Efficient fleet management will be crucial to the ongoing success of small and medium sized retailers as poorly managed fleets and drivers can quickly drain a business’ costs and resources.”
“Simplifying fleet management is therefore vital to any e-commerce retailer wanting to maximise the investment they’ve made into delivery services.”
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