Online shoppers want free standard delivery, a free and simple returns process and the option topay for premium services, UK-based retail group Shop Direct told this week’s ‘The Future of UK
Postal Services’ conference in London, stressing the importance of the returns process.Jim Roebuck, logistics director for the £1.7 billion turnover company, which dispatches 50million items a year and also owns UK parcel delivery giant Yodel, said customers want to be ableto choose the right delivery option for them and want a range of services options, even though thetake-up of premium services was still very low.
He said the one premium option that significant numbers of Shop Direct customers had chosenwas Saturday delivery, which came at a premium of £4.95, although he said customer-satisfactionscores declined after customers took advantage of this, “because they were having to pay for aservice that they hadn’t been offered before”, said Roebuck. “So it is a double-edged sword!” heobserved.
Shop Direct and its brands (including well-known retailer Littlewoods) offered “simpledelivery options, a simple returns service, and real-time tracking – but in a language thatcustomers understand”, said Roebuck. A late evening cut-off was also important, as more and morecustomers made purchases in the evenings.
“Customers also want self-service interaction with the carrier and the ability to influencethe delivery, and that is something that is not available from the postal service at the moment,”observed Roebuck. He described technology as “key”, insisting that tracking and electronicsignatures were now expected to be offered by delivery companies. “Customers also wantcommunication as the parcel approaches, and the flexibility to make changes ‘in flight’ isimportant for both customers and retailers,” he added. One of the reasons for needing this lastcapability was to help combat the high levels of fraud, Roebuck pointed out.
He said services that few customers were interested in included same-day delivery, Sundaydelivery and evening delivery, while services he would like to provide but is not able to currentlyincluded the option of deliveries to a Collect delivery shop from drop-ship suppliers; freestandard delivery on some brands; and free premium services.
Roebuck observed that the importance of returns to pure-play e-retailers and otherdistance-selling businesses was sometimes underestimated. “We need to be able to match theopportunity that retailers have in the High Street, and so our changing room is the customer’sfront room,” said Roebuck. “One thing that carriers don’t ‘get’ is that we are a credit-enabledretailer. The customer does not get an item taken off their credit account until it has come backsafely, and so returns have to be treated with the same level of care as outbound.”
With Shop Direct offering a 21-day money-back guarantee on purchases, Roebuck describedreturns as “our biggest supplier”, meaning that they also have to come back with the same urgencyas deliveries.
“It is absolutely vital to this business,” he stressed. “Returns are a failure cost, and sowe minimise returns by providing as much information as possible on the product before purchase,and we maximise products’ return to stock – 60 per cent of our returned items are sold the nextday.”
Roebuck said Shop Direct used Yodel and Royal Mail for its deliveries, along with around 30other parcel companies around the UK. He said new carrier-management functionality that the companyplanned to introduce shortly would mean the group would become increasingly multi-carrier. “ButYodel will always be our core carrier,” he insisted.
