Figures from the latest Christmas Shipping study from Kurt Salmon, part of Accenture Strategy, suggest that UK etailers under-promised and over-delivered this Christmas.
The study measured the ability of 50 UK apparel, luxury, beauty and consumer goods retailers across a broad range of categories, including bricks-and-mortar, ecommerce and department stores, on how quickly and accurately they were able to fulfil customer orders over the peak period.
The results showed that 86% of retailers offered a free delivery option over the busy Christmas period, but half offered it on the condition shoppers picked up goods in-store through Click & Collect, as opposed to getting goods delivered to their door.
It also showed that 66% offered a free standard delivery option to homes, but the majority (73%) of these retailers only did so if customers met a minimum spend threshold.
Same day services were offered but only for a small number of retailers. The average cost of same-day delivery this Christmas was £8.13, 40% higher than next day delivery which was on average £5.80. However only 12% of retailers surveyed offered a same-day service, compared to 8% last year.
Siobhán Géhin, managing director at Kurt Salmon, part of Accenture Strategy, said that on the whole the results were impressive. “Many UK etailers outperformed their bricks-and-mortar counterparts this Christmas when it came to speedy shipping, with deliveries taking on average 2.6 days compared to 3.4 days respectively. They gave themselves added flexibility during the busy period with shipping date ranges, but the majority delivered for customers much earlier than promised,” she said.
Top 10 retailers:
The following retailers came out on top for delivering a seamless customer experience and exceeding shipping promises over Christmas:
- Amazon
- Argos
- Beauty Bay
- Boohoo
- Escentual
- Lookfantastic
- Missguided
- New Look
- Whistles
- White Stuff
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