Spring 2009

A draft set of standards for home delivery solutions is being prepared by IMRG, the online retailers' organisation. It will aim to build what chief executive James Roper calls 'a usable model that enables consumers and the market to understand what is deliverable and what is available'.

The kinds of solution under scrutiny range from sophisticated drop-boxes, access systems and staffed pickup points to simple instructions such as 'leave package with neighbour' and 'leave in shed'.

The project will attempt to articulate and codify these various types of delivery solution, helping both retailers and consumers to recognise such systems more readily, and retailers to adopt some of them as part of a strategy of improving their response to consumers' delivery expectations.

The project is expected to propose a 'self-policing' approach. It will assume that e-retailers will present only those options that they have elected to support, and each will implicitly be expected to meet a minimum set of requirements.

A home delivery standard – can it help solve unattended delivery problems? click here for our extended analysis.