Product category:
Direct Marketing
News Release from: dsicmm
Edited by the Marketingservicestalk Editorial
Team on 19 December 2007
Study 700,000 packages will be late for
Christmas
Research conducted by communications experts dsicmm has revealed that over 700,000 Christmas presents and deliveries ordered online will not reach their intended recipient on time this year.
Up to five and a half million Christmas packages will not arrive at all, if delivery failure rates remain the same as last year The dsicmm research, which combined original research and third-party data to create a predictive model for Christmas 2007, shows that data accuracy, fulfilment and despatch standards need to improve as the popularity of online ordering grows
This article was originally published on Marketingservicestalk on 31 Jul 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Postal Deregulation: a year on
Paul Galpin, Group Sales and Marketing Director of dsicmm, looks at the postal services landscape now that the UK postal services industry has been fully deregulated for over a year.
dsicmm measures transpromo advertising value
Over half a billion pounds worth of advertising space on bills and statements lies unused in the UK, according to a new study from dsicmm.
If standards are not raised, consumers will become dissatisfied and disillusioned with e-commerce and growth rates will suffer in relation to in-store buying.
With traditional retailers almost all offering customers the possibility of buying online, and Christmas shopping predicted to boost online sales in the fourth quarter of 2007 to some GBP15bn, e-commerce represents an increasingly popular channel for UK consumers and businesses.
Equally, its success also makes online ordering an increasingly vulnerable channel for retailers if fulfilment and delivery standards are not maintained, holding the potential to undermine consumer confidence and trust in well-established retail brands.
Yolanda Noble, Chief Executive of dsicmm, commented: "As a major player in the whole communications and fulfilment cycle, both in B2C and B2B, we commissioned this study as a barometer of e-commerce and online ordering at a time of the year when the delivery mechanisms are under their greatest pressure.
"The findings show that whilst there is much excellent practice in the order fulfilment industry, there is also still a significant level of under-performance.
"Nothing travels faster or further than bad news, and late or undelivered Christmas presents will create far more bad feeling than items sent at other times of the year.
"The growth of e-commerce and online ordering presents a massive and growing opportunity for the fulfilment industry.
"However, companies will not invest further in this channel if they think that the industry is not raising standards to ensure that customers get a good fulfilment and delivery experience.
"Equally, for organisations using online ordering, some of the savings that customer self-service on the web brings must be reinvested in top quality packing, despatch and delivery.
"Most of these organisations have spent decades building up their brand reputation.
"The efficiencies of e-commerce are worth nothing if it undermines those brand qualities".
Key findings from the dsicmm Report.
* 710,000 presents and deliveries ordered online will not arrive in time for Christmas 2007.
* If delivery failure rates remain the same as the same period in 2006, around 5.6 million Christmas presents and packages ordered online will not be delivered at all (either returned to sender or lost in transit).
* These non-deliveries will represent GBP276m worth of goods lost either to the sender or the vendor.
* Even the most conservative estimates project that around 1.5 million Christmas packages will never be delivered, equating to GBP74m worth of goods.
A combination of desk and original research was carried out during November 2007, from which a model was constructed in order to predict the number of non-deliveries and late deliveries of Christmas gifts and parcels and ordered online.
Sources for the study include the following.
*Original qualitative and quantitative research amongst top 50 players in the UK fulfilment and despatch industry - November 2007.
* Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG).
* Forrester Research.
* Royal Mail.
* CapGemini.
* Keynote Research.
* Office of National Statistics.
* Department of Transport.
* Heriot Watt University.
* Snow Valley Research.
* The Financial Times.
• dsicmm: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Marketingservicestalk email newsletter
• Marketingservicestalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
