UK e-retail delivery network Shutl has reported a 25-fold increase in business levels last year,along with some interesting buying and demographic trends among users in the pre-Christmas period,
including later ordering, an explosion in the use of mobile devices, and a rise in malecustomers.The Shutl network, an online platform linking retailers with a network of same-day couriercompanies, began operating in March 2010, and customers include Argos, Aurora Fashions, B&QTradepoint, Karen Millen and Laithwaites Wine. Last year brought a 155% increase in theavailability of Shutl, with 600,000 shoppers offered Shutl delivery in 2011. This increase was thecombined result of more retailers offering the service, and the successful completion of thecompany’s first phase of expansion beyond London.
Improved availability, awareness and pricing helped boost the number of shoppers that chose to “shutl” by 2,570% over 2010 levels. The average price paid for Shutl delivery over the holidayperiod was £5.64 (€6.71), with more than 40% of customers receiving their delivery for free, thecompany added.
It observed that 51% of all peak pre-Christmas ‘shutling’ happened over a 10-day period from14th to 23rd December, with almost half of those orders occurring over a “frantic” four-day windowfrom 19th to 22nd December. Shoppers, on average, bought two hours later in the day compared to2010, with a seven-fold increase in the number of “insomniacs” placing online orders betweenmidnight and 3am.
The company said that, during the rest of the year, men accounted for only 36% of orders onaverage, but in 38 of the 40 days leading up to Christmas, there was a higher proportion of menusing the service than pre-peak. And on Saturday 17th December, male users outnumbered female usersfor the first – and only – time.
The company observed that men “seemingly have higher expectations than women”: feedback left byfemale shoppers over the period consistently ranked the Shutl service 4% higher than their malecounterparts, scoring it 96% combined across ‘value for money’, ‘ease of use’, ‘speed of delivery’and the ‘delivery person’. The greatest variance was for ‘value for money’, although maleperception improved by as much as 150% in the build-up to Christmas, the company added.
Meanwhile, the number of people using the Shutl service via a mobile device surged by 4,385%,with iPads proving to be the most popular device – accounting for 77% of all mobile traffic.
The fastest delivery during the pre-Christmas peak period was an order placed at Oasis on 16thNovember 2011, delivered within 17minutes, 24 seconds of check-out. This was still some way offShutl’s “world record” of 14 minutes 59 seconds, set in March 2011.
“It has been a merry Christmas for Shutl, the retailers we serve and our courier partners,” saidTom Allason, founder and CEO. “We’re already working hard to make Shutl available to as manyshoppers as possible in time for Christmas 2012. We take it as an encouraging sign for 2012 that somany people preferred to end 2011 shopping rather than sleeping!”
