Retailers in the UK could be landed with a £203 million returns bill this Black Friday according to the latest data from Sorted.
It claims that of the promotional period’s expected £3 billion sales spend up to £1.01 billion worth of online deliveries are likely to fail – arriving too late or after the allocated delivery slot. This in turn will mean £203m of products being returned to retailers according to the research.
David Grimes, founder and CEO at Sorted, said that returns in such a busy period can prove problematic since they can often not come into circulation until they are in full January Sale discounting meaning that margins are reduced still further. “Consumers already expect immediacy of delivery at every stage of their buying journey,” he said. “Indeed, our recent research showed two fifths of UK shoppers won’t wait more than 24 hours for a delivery, suggesting that even ‘next day’ fulfilment options no longer adds value to online shoppers.”
“And, with the frenzied buying behaviours associated with flash promotions, such as Black Friday, this just compounds the sense of urgency around speed of delivery. Consumers already want ultra-fast fulfilment and this is just exacerbated on Black Friday – with failed Black Friday deliveries which don’t meet shoppers’ expectations around speed costing UK retailers £203m in returns,” he said.
“In addition to offering additional delivery options to meet these demands, retailers need to be confident they can deliver on these promises to uphold the delivery experience,” he said.
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