Widespread problems with online ordering over Christmas

A new YouGov survey has shed light on the wide prevalence of retail fulfilment problems for

organisations accepting online orders from customers. Around 2,400 UK adults were quizzed,

with almost one in three of them experiencing issues with an online order over the festive period,

compared to just one in five a year earlier.

Both home delivery and click-and-collect services were affected during Christmas, missed

deliveries being a problem for 49 per cent of respondents. 45 per cent cited late or never

received deliveries, while a further 19 per cent claimed to being forced to use an alternative

retailer due to their preferred option either failing to offer adequate delivery times or not having

an item available.

Of the 39 per cent of shoppers who used a click-and-collect service, four in 10 reported a good

experience, although many believed there to be plenty of scope for improvement for this area of

retail fulfilment. Long collection waiting times were a problem for 30 per cent, while for 25 per

cent, staff either took a long time to source goods in-store or weren't able to do so at all.

However, these issues didn't prevent more than a third of those quizzed signalling an intention to

use click-and-collect more in 2015, 61 per cent being motivated by the opportunity to avoid

delivery charges and 53 per cent seeking greater convenience.

The statistics suggest that while customers appreciate greater flexibility with regard to their

receipt of online goods, they couldn't always depend easily on home delivery over the festive

period. The steep rise in purchases over Black Friday and Christmas caused service problems and

delivery delays for some retailers and couriers.

Another interesting finding of the research was that 47 per cent of Brits stayed away from bricks-

and-mortar stores for at least half of their shopping. Experian and IMRG had predicted a total

£1.3bn of online expenditure across Christmas and Boxing Day.

As online retail in the UK continues its staggering growth, much the same could be said of

customers' expectations of the service that they receive. In an age when customers have more

choice than ever of retailers, increasingly few are willing to accept a poor service as a symptom

of spectacular seasonal demand.

That only gives conscientious retailers all the more reason to concentrate on improving their

retail fulfilment process if they are to keep on attracting and retaining customers throughout

2015.