That’s according to the fourth annual Online Retail Delivery Report from e-commerce outfit, Snow Valley. The company placed orders on 107 UK online stores and evaluated each retailer on their delivery service. Fifty six per cent had a next-day delivery option, a quarter could offer Saturday delivery or delivery on a date of the customer’s choice, and 15 per cent could offer a choice of time-slots. Other findings include: 20 of the retailers could support some kind of in-store delivery option; four per cent used text messaging during the delivery process; 30 per cent of retailers now show the delivery charge upfront on the product pages; 84 per cent of orders arrived within the given timeframes; six per cent of the orders placed failed to arrive at all
“Back in 2005 when we did our first delivery report, half of the retailers gave the customer absolutely no choice about delivery times or costs – it was a case of ’delivery is £3.50, it’ll take about seven working days, take it or leave it’,” says Sarah Clelland, marketing manager at Snow Valley. “Nowadays the customer usually has a choice, although that’s not to say that retailers are adding delivery options willy-nilly. Ebuyer, for example, offers 14 different options including one for delivery before 7.30am. At the other end of the scale, half of retailers selling DVDs and other entertainment products don’t give any choice at all but standard delivery is free and it’s fast. Retailers are clearly implementing delivery policies that work for them and their customers.”
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