In today’s InternetRetailing newsletter we’re reporting on the customer experience after the buy button. We’re looking at new approaches to delivery and packaging, from the use of Starship Technologies’ autonomous robots to deliver more than 50,000 orders in the UK over the last year, to the move towards paper alternatives to plastic packaging. Both are groundbreaking ideas in their own way and have been adopted by some leading retailers. Both also have a part to play in making delivery more sustainable, something that becomes ever more important in a world where the impacts of climate change are now being felt. Sustainable packaging helps to remove plastic from landfill, and can be composted into the bargain, while electric delivery robots can play a part not only to the reduction of air pollution but in the convenience that shoppers are also now demanding. That convenience is often lacking, according to new research that we cover today that suggests only a minority of leading UK retailers offer delivery options that improve the customer experience, whether that’s free or same-day delivery or personalised delivery updates.
Meanwhile, Quiz has reassured investors that it expects to continue to work productively with Debenhams – where it made 23% of its sales in its latest financial year – despite the department store going into administration. The retailer expects a very different outcome from House of Fraser’s administration, in which it wrote off debts of £0.4m.
And WH Smith says it’s planning to relaunch its website with a focus on customer experience. The retailer says that half of its high street sales come from stationery products and that’s a focus for its online businesses that also include Funky Pigeon and Cult Pens.
Today’s guest comment comes from Jack Ehlers of PPRO on the need for retailers to offer payment choices to their online customers.
Image courtesy of Starship Technologies
