Editor's Blog Section

From ‘Opinion’ column, issue 37

Two developments on the home shopping front this summer [This was summer 2005 – Editor] underline the progress of this market sector towards the retailing and logistics mainstream.

One was the move by major-league logistics player Salvesen into the home shopping fulfilment market, indicating its expectations of strong growth in this sector.

The other was the launch of the Interactive Media in Retail Group’s Delivery Charter – which promises at last to shake the big e-tailers out of the apathy that many have shown so far towards fulfilment and delivery issues.

Much as we’d like to claim that this initiative was born in response to a plea from ourselves (see previous item), we realise it’s been in gestation for a long time – and we don’t claim to havethat much influence! Nevertheless, it chimes in perfectly with our call for some organisation to shake up the industry’s delivery performance in a productive way.

Significantly, these two moves reflect a convergence within the market. By working hand in glove with Venda, a multi-channel solutions company, Salvesen has shown it is recognising the importance of specialist technology to the fulfilment market. And by galvanising fulfilment business members such as Zendor, IMRG is showing that it really is serious about improving delivery performance on the ground.

Yet at this summer’s Express Delivery conference, it was clear that many e-tailers and carriers still believe they can offload responsibility for actually delivering online purchases to someone else.

What’s the matter with everyone? If home shopping is really such a growth area (and clearly it is), why do so few of the players care about getting delivery right?

Paradoxically, the further the established retailers wade into the online market – and these of course are exactly the clients courted by Salvesen and its like – the greater the risk that they may neglect delivery issues. After all, they might assume that disaffected online shoppers will simply use their own bricks and mortar stores instead. A lose-win situation for such retailers, you could say.

The hope is that some of them really will get it right (and there are plenty of shining examples already), and boost the overall credibility of the online option – frightening or shaming the poorer performers into competing within the online arena, rather than complacently relying on the offline alternative to rescue them.

Strength to the IMRG’s campaign. Let’s hope it finally shakes the market up, and encourages all those involved to see delivery as an integral part of the sales promise, not just an incidental detail that can be brushed aside.