There’s been a significant rise in the frequency of online shopping and spend. Convenience is a key driver both in terms of the shopping experience and delivery expectation.
- Nick Landon, Managing Director of Royal Mail Parcels
With Online shopping and click&collect expected to grow by 38% and 64% respectively between now and 2021 (source: Verdict Retail’s Channel Series report), Parcelly carried out a short research piece to find out more about London's Christmas shopping plans and parcel delivery habits during this year's festive season.
We asked 200 Londoners 5 questions, ranging from whether they do or do not shop online, have ever missed a parcel delivery and are familiar with click&collect services to where they are planning to do their Christmas shopping.
In a nutshell, this is what we found out:
Based on our results, the majority of respondents non-surprisingly preferred shopping online vs In-store, with the number of regular online shoppers being nearly 3 times larger than those who don't (72% of Online shoppers vs 28% preferring an in-store experience) - and this number is only expected to grow further next year!
72% of click and collect customers still prefer home delivery.
In line with above research figures by Royal Mail, most Britains still have parcels delivered to their home address. In fact, when asked where parcels are generally directed to, only 35% of all interviewees confirmed using their office address, whilst the majority (65%) keeps sending parcels to their home.
With this in mind, we were particularly interested in finding out more about Online shopper's experience with 'failed parcel deliveries'. We discovered that only a small number of respondents (13%) claims to have never missed a parcel delivery in 2016, whereby a huge 87% missed at least 1-5 parcel deliveries (and a whopping 18% amongst these more than 5 throughout the past year).
Failed parcel deliveries are a huge issue for the delivery/logistics industry, reinforced by the rise in Online shopping volume as well as an increased pressure for Online retailers, and causing not only annoyance from a customer perspective, but also sigificant associated financial costs. As reported by Helen Nugent in The Spectator, Britons experienced 4.8 million delivery problems in 2015/16, which according to Citizens Advice equated to a nationwide total liability of £148 million in damaged or lost goods, hours wasted and time away from work.
A solution to this issue is the rise in click&collect services, which 62,5% of our Online shopping respondents use in order to avoid missing a parcel delivery (with only 37.5% stating to have never used it). Our findings are in line with a survey from JDA & Centiro conducted in April 2016, which shows that over half of UK shoppers have used click&collect services in the past year.
Shoppers still value the British high street, seeing it as a vital part of multichannel shoppers.
Although Online shopping keeps growing fast, research shows that the local High Street experience is still very much valued in Britain. In fact, nearly half of our respondents (46.5%) said they will integrate Online and In-store shopping experience when buying their Christmas presents. Some use the Internet mainly for price comparisons purposes or researching a specific item before then buying it in-store. The number of people who are planning on completing their Christmas shopping entirely online was 28.5% against 25% who claimed to only shop on the High Street.
At Parcelly we know how important it is for consumers to have a great Online shopping experience and that is why our innovative click&collect app allows our customers to collect their parcels when and where they want at the touch of a button! There is much current debate about how the shift in shopping habits negatively affect local High Streets, but Parcelly's business model supports our business partners by increasing footfall to their local stores, improving cross-selling opportunities and generating an additional revenue stream. That's one reason why our nationwide network has already grown to more than 800+ parcel collection points across the UK...!
We hope you join Parcelly's click&collect revolution to make your Christmas shopping experience hassle-free and wish you a wonderfully peaceful Holiday Season...
