New research carried out by the Royal Mail shows that online retailers lost £2.7 billion in 2009 as a result of customers abandoning their shopping carts due to issues surrounding delivery. The report reveals that 52 per cent are failing to meet five of the most important customer criteria around delivery.

Royal Mail has worked with industry body, IMRG, to create five ‘golden rules’ that online retailers must follow if they are to deliver the optimum online shopping experience:be flexible; help customers to help you; keep customers informed; don’t be late; no surprises. Gary Winter, Royal Mail’s head of goods fulfilment, says: “Customer needs continue to evolve and in a massively competitive online marketplace retailers that operate in a bubble and fail to take these needs into account risk losing business. To help online retailers bridge the gap - particularly in those key areas where success could result in increased online shopping - our golden rules and retail offerings can help these companies raise their game and ensure that the online shopping experience really delivers.”

Across these five key criteria, an average of 52 per cent of businesses did not meet customer expectations: 85 per cent of business do not allow customers to choose specific delivery dates, 74 per cent do not enable shoppers to specify special delivery instructions, 16 per cent don’t offer online order tracking, 54 per cent take three or more working days to deliver on standard orders, and 30 per cent don’t display delivery charges.

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