Sending Lots of Parcels? How to Make this Festive Season Your Best Ever!

Sending Lots of Parcels? How to Make this Festive Season Your Best Ever!

129129129129 129129129 129129129129129

blogs.pitneybowes.co.uk/pbtalksbiz/

• UK online shoppers set to spend £13bn this season (Sage Pay research).

• 49% of shoppers plan to do their Christmas shopping earlier this year (Pitney Bowes Holiday Shipping Survey 2014).

• 88% of people are intending to do some form of online shopping over the festive season (NetDespatch 2014 survey).

• UK retailers are on course to dispatch a record 900 million orders or 930 parcels in 2014 with 120 million orders in December alone (IMRG survey).

Another pressure peak season is upon us…

13bn

12bn

12bn

12bn

12bn

12bn

12bn

12bn

12bn

12bn

12bn

12bn

12bn

2014 2013 2012 2011


On 20th October Royal Mail released their new small parcel format. • Combining both Small Parcels to create a larger box with a bigger

25L capacity. • Without telling you how to kick an open door, this means you get

more room for your money - Simple!

Carriers Are Reacting



Royal Mail have also introduced promotional pricing for 2nd Class Small Parcel till the 19th of Jan, saving you £1 every time!• 77% of shoppers have abandoned their baskets with 53% of them

citing high delivery costs as the reason (IMRG survey).• Money saved here can easily be transferred down to your

customers delivery options to: - Decrease ‘basket abandonment’. - Increase sales.

More for Less!


SAVE £1 EVERY TIME


Royal Mail are also offering Sunday deliveries to those who live within the boundaries of the M25.• Almost 100 of its enquiry offices will open on Sundays

allowing unavailable recipients to pick up their items at a more convenient time.

• Great news for your business as 29% stated that they avoided making an online purchase over the Christmas period due to a lack of acceptable options (Econsultancy Christmas 2013 Online Shopping Survey Report).

Sunday Deliveries and More



That’s great if you live near the M25 or are lucky enough to have an office open on a Sunday but what if your customers don’t?• Another way to make your deliveries even more flexible to your

customers is to offer the option of Collect + where the items are delivered to a participating shop and the customer can pick it up at their leisure.

• This will minimise ‘abandoned baskets’ and maximise sales potential.

Collect +



UNDELIVERED

It may seem pretty obvious but it is still clear some online sellers aren’t listening to customer feedback. • In December 2012 225,000 parcels did not arrive on the

specified date or time. Yes, it was a very snowy December and understandably harder to deliver to certain areas than others.

• This winter is set to be similar by all accounts so don’t let your parcels be left out in the cold (Econsultancy Survey 2012).

Don’t be left out in the cold…



59% of those who were mucked around by deliveries expressed that they would not shop with those retailers again (Econsultancy survey)

• However, this could have been avoided. • 77% of people said that they track their packages that are

being shipped to them versus 68% in 2013 (Pitney Bowes Holiday Shipping Survey 2014).

• Customers want clear, accurate tracking online and to be informed when there is a problem.

Let Your Customers Keep Track



It’s not just customers who want to track items. • 18-25% of goods sold online are returned to sender. That’s up to

a quarter of your stock in the returns process. • Quash any disputes from your customers concerning a returned

item using returns software. • This can also provide detailed reports of stock levels and more.

And keep Track Yourself



26 DEC 2012

MILLION VISITS TO RETAIL WEBSITES

129With all the talk of Christmas delivery it’s easy to forget the day after. • Boxing Day 2013 was the biggest and busiest day ever for online

retailers in Britain (Insight from Experian Hitwise). -Internet users made 129m visits to retail websites, - a 15% increase on 2012, - and spent a total of 17m hours browsing and shopping online. • Make sure your Christmas delivery strategy is carried on past

Christmas and ensure maximum spend.

Boxing Day is Big Business



Hope you’ve enjoyed our run through of how your deliveries could be even better this year, now go out there and make it your best ever!Visit www.pitneybowes.com/uk to learn more about our postage meters, track and trace software and so much more.

Make this Your Best Year Ever...

