Summer 2008

Half of online shoppers look for delivery information before even starting to shop from a web site, according to an extensive consumer survey conducted by eDigital Research on behalf of IMRG (the online retailers' organisation). The inference is that failure to display this information prominently is losing retailers many possible sales.

Other potential delivery problems are also stopping some consumers ordering in the first place. Twenty per cent of respondents said they would not order an item unless it would fit through their letterbox – a strong argument for the offer of alternative delivery arrangements.

Once shoppers do order online, failed home deliveries can have a knock-on effect far beyond the immediate inconvenience they cause, the survey shows. Ninety per cent of respondents said that if they received a 'yellow card' indicating that a delivery had been attempted, or generally suffered a bad delivery experience, they were unlikely to use the same supplier again.

Overall, more than a quarter of respondents (28.4 per cent) said they were put off buying online at all through concerns about delivery. According to IMRG chief executive James Roper: 'These research results only go to show how much emphasis needs to be put by retailers and carriers on getting delivery right.'

 

For a further analysis of this IMRG survey's findings, click here for the longer article in our features section.