27% of top UK retailers don’t communicate during delivery

*April 16, 2019 by Ecommerce News. About Logistics with tags The United Kingdom.

The largest online retailers in the United Kingdom aren’t so keen on communicating with shoppers during the delivery period. As a matter of fact, only four of the 100 largest online retailers in the country provide customers with personalized information about their order status, while 27 don’t communicate at all during delivery.

This is shown by an extensive study from ParcelLab, which looked at the shipping and delivery process of the top 100 online retailers in the United Kingdom. It looks like ecommerce companies are ignoring the customer once they have clicked on the precious order button.

Not much choice in delivery times
In the UK E-Commerce Shipping Study 2019 it’s shown that 94 percent of the top 100 online retailers don’t give customers the opportunity to choose between delivery partners. There’s also not much choice when it comes to delivery times. Although 72 percent offer express delivery, only 7 percent offer same-day delivery (and not even throughout the country). And only 42 percent offer weekend delivery, while 25 percent lets customers pick a timeslot for delivery.

The carriers used by the top 100 online retailers in the UK. Source: ParcelLab

Only 12 percent offer free shipping
When it comes to shipping fees, only 12 percent offer free shipping and 65 retailers offer free shipping when a minimum order value (range between 10 and 150 pounds) is met. Online retailers in the United Kingdom who do apply a shipping cost, ask an average of 3.99 pounds for shipping.

After the customer has clicked on the order button, things become quiet. Most online retailers stop directly communicating with their customers. Instead, these customers need to check the order status themselves. Only 11 percent of the online retailers studied communicate with their customers during the shipping period. The other 89 percent let the delivery carrier do the communication or just leave their customers in the dark.

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