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What shoppers really, really want delivered: study

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A Big Mac, drinks and flowers are the among the items the UK public most wants to get delivered, according to a new study.

“McDonalds delivery”, “prosecco delivery” and “coffee delivery” were all among the most popular delivery-related search terms, according to analysis by courier comparison website Parcel2Go.

The most popular search term in the last 12 months in the UK was for “flower delivery”. Searches peaked in March, at 201,000 searches compared to the usual average of 110,000, implying that floral arrangements are still a classic go-to present for Mother’s Day.

With 33,100 average searches per month, “McDonald’s delivery” was one of the next highest search terms that came out of the research. Other popular food-related search terms included “food delivery, with 22,200 average monthly searches, “breakfast delivery” (5,400) and “coffee delivery” (590).

Alcohol also appeared to be a priority for those turning to search, with the phrase “alcohol delivery” receiving an impressive (or concerning) 4,400 average searches per month. More specifically, searches for “prosecco delivery” seem to be on the up, following an increasing number of fans in the UK.

The research looked both at the search volumes of delivery-related terms as well as at Google’s ‘auto-complete’ function, where the search engine uses popular search terms to predict what users will type.

It also considered social media monitoring, where one Twitter users sent an urgent tweet to ask if anyone knew of an emergency toilet paper delivery service.

Other examples included expected little treats and luxuries, as well as items for more desperate emergencies, and some of the most interesting examples spanned across: food and drink; alcohol; drugs (medication and illegal); etc.

Les Yates, global head of marketing at Parcel2Go said: “The demand is clearly there for food and drink to be delivered right to our doorsteps, and we can see this from the growing popularity of companies like UberEats and Deliveroo, which are making our lives infinitely easier and gradually becoming staple apps that we couldn’t live without. This is proven by how successful the announcement was for the McDonald’s delivery service – searches spiked in July 2017 with a staggering 110,000 during the month.

“Other searched-for delivery requests included ‘hangover delivery’ and even ‘toilet paper delivery’. Admittedly, the latter had significantly lower search volumes, but it shows that people do commonly turn to Google in times of need – we just hope the search engine could help those 10 people a month getting caught short!”

“Sure enough, the delivery industry has stepped up its game to give the public what they want when it comes to food and drink, but it will be interesting to see how the demand for related delivery services in other areas, such as the medication and home essentials examples above, might impact future business models.”

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