Nearly half (47%) of UK adults experienced problems with their online orders in the last 12 months, according to a new JDA/Centiro ‘Customer Pulse 2015’ Report, citing late or non-deliveries as well as missed delivery cards despite being at home.
Nearly half (46%) of the respondents surveyed reported late deliveries while 30% said they never actually received their goods ordered. 40% of the recipients got a ‘missed’ delivery card even though they were at home at the time the card arrived.
With British consumers increasingly shopping online, they are becoming ‘less tolerant of service issues’. According to the survey, 71% of respondents said that a bad shopping experience with a particular retailer would make them easily switch to a competitor for their next online purchases.
The research further revealed that cost (50%) and convenience (25%) of delivery are more important for the UK online shoppers than speed (18%).
In addition, a wide range of delivery options turned out to be a decisive factor for shoppers when choosing a retailer. Nearly half of respondents (46%) who have made an online purchase in the last 12 months said that they had chosen a retailer that offered multiple delivery options over one that only offered one option.
Furthermore, a third (33%) of respondents said they would be likely to pick a retailer offering a particular delivery time slot (at an extra cost), over one which offers just free delivery. Convenience remains an important factor for consumers, with 20% of the respondents highlighting the importance of being able to change the delivery date or the time slot after even after an order has been placed and is being shipped.
“As online retail continues to grow, so too have consumers’ expectations. What they want is an ‘anywhere, anytime’ fulfillment service that is convenient and reliable. No longer are consumers prepared to wait at home for a courier to deliver a parcel, or wait days before they can visit a store to collect their goods. Today’s consumer is not only dictating how and when they would like to receive goods, but reserving the right to make adjustments up until the last minute,” Jason Shorrock, retail strategy director at JDA, commented on the survey results.
The report also highlighted the growing importance of the returns experience for online shoppers which has a great impact on their choice of the retailer. A significant number of UK adults (63%) confirmed that the ease of being able to return items has a direct influence on which retailers they shop online with. Of those who have shopped online, common frustrations with returns include having to pay for return postage and packaging (37%) and having to return items by post or wait for courier (24%), followed by an inability to return goods to a store (15%).
“Retailers need to move away from treating returns as simply a cost-recovery exercise, instead they need to adapt their processes to take into account consumers’ ever-changing buying habits. Today, it is common for customers to buy multiple items online with the intention of sending some back. The research clearly shows the returns experience is having an increasing bearing on who consumers shop with online,” Niklas Hedin, CEO of Centiro, said, urging retailers to look at returns as a further opportunity to enhance the customer experience.
“In the same way that today’s omni-channel environment is allowing consumers to buy items where and when they want, they would like the same flexibility when it comes to returns. This could be returning goods to a store or specifying a location and/or time for a courier pickup. By capturing this information, retailers can start to personalise the returns experience and create more value for the consumer and themselves,” he suggested.
The survey revealed a growing popularity of ‘Click & Collect’ services, with nearly half of respondents (49%) using them in the last 12 months. The most common reasons named were avoiding delivery charges (57%) and more convenience compared to home delivery (55%).
However, nearly half (47%) of ‘Click & Collect’ shoppers faced issues negatively impacting their experience with the service. Last year, the figure amounted to only 32%, which reflects a growing issue for the retailers to scale their ‘Click & Collect’ operations. Of those who have experienced problems, the most commonly cited were long waiting times due to a lack of staff (32%) followed by staff being unable to locate items in store (30%).
“Online retail continues to be an extremely competitive battleground. The winners will be those retailers that can offer a reliable and convenient fulfillment service to consumers, rather than simply focusing on speed and price. At the same time, escalating costs and ever-increasing competition are putting pressure on retailers’ already squeezed margins. Retailers must think hard about the configuration of their supply chains, and will need to become much smarter about how they use their key assets of staff, stores and inventory to fulfill customer requests in an intelligent way,” Shorrock concluded.
Commissioned by JDA and Centiro and conducted by YouGov Plc, the online survey interviewed 2,093 adults on 16 – 17 April 2015.
