Deliveryblues

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Delivery options - latest research

The following extract was spotted in the M-logistics August newsletter

Home delivery options – ‘little improvement’
Internet retailers are making little progress in improving the range and quality of their delivery options, according to a new report commissioned from consultancy Snow Valley by IMRG. On a count of 14 aspects of home delivery, the report found only two areas where the change since last year exceeded 5 per cent – deliveries limited to billing address only (down from 17 to 9 per cent), and an online tracking facility (up from 59 to 67 per cent). Fourteen per cent of retailers delivered at a specified time of day (11 per cent last year), and 24 per cent offered Saturday delivery (23 per cent last year). No fewer that 43 per cent of the sites studied offered no delivery options, and only 6 per cent of retailers offered a “buy online and collect in-store” service. But the report concludes that many retailers “are actively trying out new ideas when it comes to delivery.”

Does anybody have any idea what the "new ideas" might be?

I also read that shoppers may be provided with the capability to precisely track (presumably on-line) their deliveries so that they can arrive home at the right time to receive the delivery!!

Would this work?

3 Comments:

  • At 10:14 am, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I buy a lot of gear from ebuyer.co.uk. The prices are good and generally delivery is ok "IF I AM IN"!

    A couple of weeks ago I popped out for an hour (literally) and when I got back I had two cards laying on my mat for the same delivery. When I called the delivery company I couldn't talk to a human so when I typed in the delivery code they reported that as two attempts had been made my parcel was now winging it's way back to the supplier.

    I tried to get hold of ebuyer to tell them that I was being ripped off by the delivery company as I was being refunded the cost of the product but NOT THE DELIVERY COSTS.

    Of course I received no reply to my email and like a sheep I am about to order more stuff from them as they are the cheapest. Obviously low prices are achieved by having no customer support staff.....

     
  • At 10:45 am, Blogger Delivery Blues said…

    That sounds pretty scandalous. It begs the question as to when two visits to the front door become two delivery attempts.
    In the extreme this could mean that if the deliverer turns around at the end of the customer's driveway after attempt one and goes back to the front door again, then this constitutes a second attempt. Well obviously that's not really two attempts, but is returning with an hour a valid second attempt? Should it be the next day? Who defines this?

    Also, and more importantly, did you know beforehand, that if two unsuccessful attempts were made, the goods would be returned and that you would be liable for the delivery cost?

     
  • At 8:39 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I read an article about Tesco offering two hour timed windows for home delivery of non-food items. Having been on the receiving end of some ropey
    service in the past from some of the other retailers, I’m going to give this a try. Though goodness knows how Tesco can make money out of doing this when nobody else seems to be able to. Still, they take enough off me at the food
    checkout so I feel like benefiting from a bit of cross-subsidy! And anything that allows me to avoid actually going to the shops has got to be worth it.

    Here’s a link to the article

    http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=412205&in_page_

    id=2&ct=5
    <
    http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=412205&in_page
    _id=2&ct=5>

     

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