Ecommerce Digest: Free shipping still best; DHL e-retail success;
Rounding up more news on e-commerce shipping from around the world, including from the US, the UK and Germany…
Free shipping is still top promotion in US ecommerce
The third annual survey on US holiday-season e-commerce from technology provider MarketLive, Inc., has found that free shipping is the thing most likely to influence shoppers to make a purchase.
The 2011 Holiday Shopper Survey was conducted for MarketLive by the E-tailing Group, and found that one in five Americans are expecting to do more of their Christmas shopping online this year, while 83% said they will buy at least one present online this year.
With saving money the top reason for shopping online, free shipping was cited by 83% of shoppers as the promotional feature most likely to influence a sale. However, that proportion was down from the 92% that cited free shipping in last year’s survey.
DHL Parcel online retail platform performing well
Deutsche Post has said its online shopping platform, MeinPaket.de (pictured right), has had a successful first year of operations, with more than 200,000 customers registering to use it.
The website was launched last year by DHL PArcel Germany as part of its strategy to improve services for e-commerce merchants, and thereby boost package volumes. Complete with its own payment system, DHL Checkout, the website has seen more than 2,000 retailers selling more than 3.5m different products through its pages.
“This shows that the decision was just right to support our business customers with MeinPaket.de to give them extra options through an additional distribution channel,” said Andrej Busch, DHL Parcel Germany chief executive.
Parcel2Go welcomes eBay shopping basket enhancement
UK parcel shipping company Parcel2Go has praised eBay for setting up a shopping basket system on its online retail platform.
Bolton-based Parcel2Go, a portal offering shipping from a range of carriers from DHL, TNT and Parcelforce to Yodel, City Link and FedEx Express, said the eBay development will mean consumers buying more products online.
Richard Mercer, the company’s MD, said: “It will make the site easier to use and help boost sales volumes,” he said. “eBay has advised sellers to make sure they offer a wide range of domestic and international shipping options to really make the most out of this feature.”
Asda Direct signs Collect+ to provide returns service
UK supermarket chain Asda has selected Collect+ to provide a returns service for its online retail service, Asda Direct.
The deal with Walmart-owned ASDA, the UK’s second largest supermarket chain, means its 3m customers will be able to make use of more than 4,000 local Collect+ affiliated shops to drop off items for the free return service. Collect+ is expecting to handle around a third of all Asda Direct returns packages through its logistics partnership with delivery firm Yodel.
Steven Hall, returns manager at Asda Direct, said opting for Collect+ was about giving customers a choice of how they return goods, and to make it easy to return items and track the returned items. “Using Collect+ will allow us to monitor which goods to expect back and when, and will help out customers to fully track their parcels back to our returns centre, helping improve customer experience,” said Hall.
