According to recent research on consumer online shopping by Arvato, a supply chain management and e-commerce company, out of 2,000 US shoppers 83% said that free shipping is paramount in placing their order, 54% said they care most about delivery speed, and 53% said they care most about free returns. When it came to cancelling cart orders, the most cited reasons were items being currently out of stock and high delivery costs.
45% of people said that convenience is the most important factor when online shopping, with 17% saying that having multiple delivery options was a key factor. 56% of Americans use the “Buy Online Pick up In Store” and 32% of the people surveyed said they would like to see that option increase with online deliveries.
Ferka Vukel, Director Fashion and Cosmetics at Arvato SCM Solutions, commented: “Delivery isn’t just about fulfillment but an integral part of the decision-making process for the online shopper. Those retailers who are not offering a fast, convenient and, crucially, free delivery service are at risk of losing out. With retailers having to balance the rising cost of fulfillment against the cost of losing an order, there is no easy answer, however one thing all retailers can do is to be transparent, giving customers an estimated delivery cost from the outset to avoid frustration at the end of the shopping journey.”
The survey also showed consumers wanting innovative delivery within the next few years such as driverless delivery, uber delivery, and having deliveries from multiple retailers mailed out in one go in order to increase convenience. Some people even expressed the desire for even more revolutionary delivery methods such as drone deliveries, allowing retailers to track them via smartphones so that deliveries get to the person instead of their home address or store, and allowing people to sign for deliveries using their finger print to ensure a more secure delivery system.
The main take-away from the research done by Arvato is that when it comes to online shopping people care most about delivery (costs of shipping, convenience of picking up the product, and transparency during the ordering process so that they are aware of all costs, etc before placing the order).
