Communication problems still blight e-delivery, says new report

E-retailers and their delivery companies must improve their communication with consumers, inorder to provide a better customer experience and cut levels of failed deliveries, according to new

The Home Delivery in the UK: The Doorstep Experience report, conducted by e-commerce researchfirm Snow Valley, confirmed that there had been major improvements in the delivery experience inrecent years, although significant deficiencies still remained, particularly for deliveries todomestic addresses.

As part of the research, Snow Valley placed orders with 229 retailers, of which 77% allowed thecustomer to track their order online this year, up from 59% in 2005. However, the quality oftracking information varied, with only 28% of sites returning any useful information when searchedfor ‘delivery’, according to the company.

Only around 4% of the retailers sent a text message alert giving an expected time delivery slot,although this figure was 12% among larger retailers, with only some of these giving the option ofselecting an alternative delivery time.

And of the 113 retailers that asked for electronic proof of delivery, just over half provided alink to the carrier’s website to allow the customer to actually see the progress of their goods. Itwas also often unclear what would be expected of customers during the delivery itself – “57% oforders needed to be signed for, but 31% of the retailers did not warn us about this”, the researchcompany said.

Although all of the orders that were delivered to a work address arrived safely, the orders thatwere delivered to a residential address were a different story. “We placed twelve orders knowingthat no-one would be in to receive the goods, and the results were sobering: some deliveries wereleft with a neighbour, some were left on the doorstep, some were carded, and in some cases we didn’t hear anything at all until we called the retailer to ask about the whereabouts of our order,” saidthe research group.

Nigel Doust, Blackbay’s CEO, said the new report highlighted the lack of predictability thatconsumers are experiencing if they are not at home to accept delivery. “The last mile and doorstepexperience is the most critical part of the online shopping experience and is often the only partof the process where there is any human interaction,” he said. “The performance of the deliverycompany during this vital stage is inextricably linked to the e-retailer and can play a key role inthe consumer’s decision to purchase online again.”

He concluded: “Ultimately what this report shows is that when it comes to pre-deliverycommunication and the doorstep experience there is still room for improvement. The data isavailable through mobile worker solutions; however the data is not always being used by the carrieror retailer to maximum effect in order to provide visibility of delivery and to better communicatewith their customers.”

The report is available free of charge from www.snowvalley.com/research.