Snow valley releases 2009 online retail delivery report

72% of UK online retailers now give the customer a choice about when their delivery will turn up, according to the fourth annual Online Retail Delivery Report from Snow Valley.
Snow Valley placed orders on 107 online stores and evaluated each retailer’s performance. 56% had a next-day delivery option, a quarter could offer Saturday delivery or delivery on a date of the customer’s choice, and 15% could offer a choice of time-slots.
“Back in 2005 when we did our first delivery report, we found that half of the retailers gave absolutely no choice about delivery times or costs – it was a case of ’delivery is £3.50, it’ll take about 7 working days, take it or leave it’,” said Sarah Clelland, Marketing Manager at Snow Valley.
“But retailers are not going crazy – they’re working out what their customers want. For example, Ebuyer offers 14 different options including one for delivery before 7.30am. At the other end of the scale, half of the retailers selling DVDs and other entertainment products don’t have any options, but standard delivery is free and it’s fast. It’s important for retailers to have a delivery policy that works for them.”
The 46-page report looks at 28 different aspects of the online delivery process, from whether retailers can deliver overseas to how much they charge for delivery.
Other findings include:
• 20 of the retailers gave an in-store delivery option
• 4% used text messaging during the delivery process
• 30% of retailers now show the delivery charge on the product pages
• 84% of orders arrived within the given timeframes
• Less positively, 6% of the orders placed failed to arrive at all