PUBLISHER’S NOTE
CHRISTMAS DELIVERY PROBLEMS LEFT BAD TASTE
Nearly one in three (31 per cent) of British online shoppers may have experienced problems with their orders this Christmas, says research conducted of behalf of JDA between 29-30 December. Its sample of 2398 adults seems to
bear out the backlash from consumers as supermarkets cancelled home deliveries, large retailers like M&S amended their delivery promises, and carriers halted making collections from retailers. Not a good way to start the Christmas shopping season. Te JDA research found that 49 per cent of its sample suffered missed deliveries, with 45 per cent experiencing late deliveries or not receiving their goods at all. Our personal experience here bore this out causing us to turn to the premium next day services from Citylink to ensure that important Supplier of the Year Awards trophies were delivered on time, which they were luckily, given the news that broke on Christmas Day, but that’s another story. Poor service is not the kind of news
to start a New Year with as, inevitably, a single disappointing experience during the often stressful run-up to Christmas can result in the loss of very good customers even when the actual problem was caused by the carrier rather than the retailer. As widely reported Click & Collect grew in
popularity largely to counter reliance on home delivery but here too there were problems with stores and collection points unable to cope with the demand and experiencing problems with delayed deliveries themselves. Long waiting times for service, disorganised or inexperienced staff, lack of dedicated areas for Click & Collect pick ups, and “lost” parcels were very common complaints. Tis flies in the face of the reasons why Click & Collect was chosen - 61 per cent of those surveyed opted for Click & Collect to avoid paying for delivery, with 53 per cent choosing it for convenience. Some customers (outside of this survey group) have since cottoned on, and complained in the wider media, that whilst Click & Collect delivery may be marketed as being “free”, the reality is that it can be very costly for the customer and very inconvenient indeed if requiring several trips to be made to eventually be able to be handed a parcel.
Jason
Shorrock, retail strategy director at JDA said “With growing numbers of consumers opting to shop with retailers that offer the option of “Click & Collect”, those that can ensure fulfilment excellence will be the ultimate winners. Indeed our research shows that nearly one in five online shoppers surveyed used an alternative retailer this Christmas as a result of their preferred one not having items available
“In hindsight, there remains massive room for improvement particularly if retailers decide to leverage shopping “events” like Black Friday...”
Issue Number 223 Jan/Feb 2015
or having delivery times that met their requirements.” In hindsight, there remains massive
room for improvement particularly if retailers decide to leverage shopping “events” like Black Friday which resulted in pure chaos in operations centres up and down the country, meltdown for some of the carriers, and disappointed customers. All whilst retailers bore the true cost of lower margins and reduced demand once these sale days were over. Most multichannel retailers are now reporting increased demand over November and December, as they would and should, but as the old saying goes “turnover is vanity, profit is sanity” and it will be a while before the financial implications of Christmas 2014 are shared.
New event for Operations & Fulfilment professionals
Te DCA is staging a new conference for its members called Operations & Fulfilment Excellence . Te full day programme will provide much needed focus on all aspects of operations, including delivery and customer service strategies. Te date: 14th May 2015 at Leicester Tigers. More details including an earlybird registration offer can be found on page 9.
Plus lots more inside! Inside: Supplier of the Year Awards Winners
ECMOD Direct Commerce Awards Entry Details
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DIRECT COMMERCE ASSOCIATION
A new year dawns. It is always a key time for recruitment of new talent and for a steady stream of announcements about period of gardening leave commencing, for senior departures on the back of poor results and for new businesses launching. We certainly haven’t been disappointed
this January that has seen a true merry-go- round in action in the database services sector, bringing a certain sense of déjà vu in some quarters – see P28. Been just as active in the 3PL sector too with senior people jumping from one carrier group to another – and where do we begin with the supermarket sector? Tere have been rather too many appointments and sideways moves to include in these pages but we do our best to keep up online … It is always worth checking the appointments news at
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the delivery sector. Te rapid expansion of Click & Collect locations, competing carrier management solutions, carriers expanding, carriers offering same day delivery, carriers failing, client companies chasing deals, customers left wondering how to choose from all of the services they’re now being offered. Free P&P, free returns – margins being squeezed. Te
CONTENTS 4 NEWS ROUND-UP
11 THE ‘CUSTOMER HANGOUT’ IS THE CONTACT CENTRE OF THE FUTURE
12 CARRY ON AT YOUR (ULTRA-)CONVENIENCE 14 HOW TECHNOLOGY IS DRIVING THE INDEPENDENT SECTOR
16 INTERNATIONALLY SPEAKING: MULTI-CHANNEL OPPORTUNITIES FOR BRITS ABROAD
18 REWARD POINTS: A BIG LURE BUT NOT THE ONLY DRIVING FACTOR FOR CONSUMERS
19 ECMOD DIRECT COMMERCE AWARDS 22 DIRECT COMMERCE SUPPLIER OF THE YEAR AWARDS WINNERS 2014 28 DIRECT COMMERCE ASSOCIATION 32 LISTS AND MEDIA 34 EXPERT ROSTER 39 DIRECT COMMERCE PROFILE
Direct Commerce |
www.directcommercemagazine.com
absolute chaos wrought by Black Friday as well as the profits sacrificed in order to grab whatever business could be generated. Where will it all end? John Lewis Direct questioning the commercial sense of participating in Black Friday – Shop Direct fully up for it. Others wondering what hit them or sitting quietly on the fence letting others cut margins and saving their sales until Boxing Day. In all of this, we can’t help but admire Royal Mail’s Moya Greene who simply points out that the combined total parcel volume of all of Royal Mail’s many competitors for the whole of 2014 is eclipsed by the volume Royal Mail generated in December alone. And Simon Wolfson for bringing the sales in without joining the fray. What will 2015 bring? More
consolidation we expect. We’re waiting to see who snaps up Gray and Osbourn and which other brands will come up for sale over the coming months and wondering how the imminent election will impact trade. And Argos now upping its foray into the clothing segment, what will that do to supermarket own brand clothing sales as well as those of mainstream family fashion retailers? Tere is a very interesting time ahead. JRH
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