News

Welcome to the Blast-off blog!

Here’s the place where you can keep up to date with all the latest rumblings at Shutl Mission Control. You can also follow us on any of the social networks linked to below.

by Guy Westlake on January 16, 2012 at 11:35 am | Comment

After a manic December, we thought it would be interesting to dive into the data and see what we could learn from this Christmas.


Christmas was surprisingly late, though we weren’t!

  • 51% of all peak shutling happened over a 10-day period (from 14th to 23rd December), with 24% occurring over a frantic 4-day window (from 19th to 22nd December). 2010 happened to be even later / more frantic for Shutl although we suspect that was an anomaly caused by the snow and shoppers not being able to receive their previously ordered shopping.

  • Shoppers bought 2 hours later in the day versus pre-peak, with a seven-fold increase in insomniacs placing online orders between midnight and 3am.

  • Our fastest delivery was an order placed at Oasis on 16th November 2011, delivered in 17mins : 24secs of checking out. This was 41% faster than last year’s quickest (29mins : 24secs), though still some way off Shutl’s 14mins : 59secs world record set in March 2011.  Average ‘Now’ delivery time was 85mins : 01secs.



What separates the sexes?


  • Pre-peak, men accounted for only 36% of Shutl orders on average, however 38 / 40 days leading up to Christmas saw an increased proportion of men using the service. Saturday 17th December saw the first (and only) time male users outnumbered female!
  • Men seemingly have higher expectations than women – or at least perhaps they don’t value their time as highly! Feedback left by female shoppers over the period consistently ranked the Shutl service 4% higher than their male counterparts, scoring it a whopping 96% combined across ‘value for money’, ‘ease of use’, ‘speed of delivery’ & the ‘delivery person’. The greatest variance (150%) was for ‘value for money’, although male perception improved considerably over the Christmas period.



Kindle beats iPad in battle, but Apple is winning the war

  • Consumer electronics accounted for 55% of top 100 products shutl’d.
  • The Kindle was the most popular item Shutl’d, representing 1.6% of all transactions and outselling iPads by almost 2:1.
  • When including iPods, Apple narrowly pips Amazon to the post, accounting for 1.7% of all items shutl’d.



Xmas 2011: bigger, cheaper and mobiler

  • 155% increase in the availability of Shutl (0.5m+ shoppers were offered Shutl this year). This is the combined result of more retailers offering the service and the successful completion of the first phase of our national expansion plan.
  • 2,570% more shoppers chose Shutl versus 2010, driven by increased availability, greater awareness and promotional pricing.
  • The average price paid for Shutl delivery over the holiday period was £5.64, with over 40% of customers receiving their delivery for free.
  • 4,385% growth in the number of people using the Shutl service via a mobile device, with iPads proving to be the most popular (accounting for a whopping 77% of all mobile traffic).




5 Predictions for Xmas 2012

1. 5m+ shoppers will be offered Shutl during peak 2012: With increased coverage and new retailers coming on board, we expect 10x increase in availability of Shutl next year.
2. Majority of deliveries will be free: Having demonstrated this year that offering Shutl for free makes customers more likely to buy (not just choose Shutl) we expect Shutl to become a mainstream promotional tool.
3. Retailers will expand opening hours over Christmas period: Given that shoppers are shopping later, we expect several retailers serving key product categories to remain open much later in the day with some city stores even offering 24/7 delivery…
4. Shutl to me here!: It is clear to all that mobile shopping is not just a fad. We expect innovative retailers to make use of the inherent advantages of mobile and start allowing shoppers to order deliveries to non-home/work locations. i.e. hairdresser, restaurant etc.
5. Sub 10 minute delivery: With more retailers, greater coverage and improved implementations, we believe it is only a matter of time before the 10 minute barrier is broken…

by Tom Allason on December 21, 2011 at 8:16 am | Comment

Many of this year’s last minute shoppers will be giving a wide berth to online retailers having been let down by them and their delivery providers last year.

We thought therefore that now would be an opportune moment to spell out what shoppers can expect when they choose delivery by rocket and why we are just a little bit different from your average delivery provider.



1. While exact Christmas cut-off times will vary by retailer, this year you will be able to place orders for Shutl’s same day delivery right up until the afternoon of 24th December. In fact Shutl delivers 24 hours a day 365 days a year, we just need our retail partners to be open in order to be able to offer service.



2. We always will let you choose when you want delivery, either ASAP or at a time of your choice. Unless you choose ASAP, we will never give you a delivery window that exceeds an hour.



3. We will always send you a tracking email the moment your order has been dispatched, alowing you to track your delivery in real-time – 99% time you can watch it winging its way towards you on a GPS-enabled map.



4. On the rare occasion that we are running late, we will do our best to reach you, apologise for our tardiness and let you know just how late your delivery will be. And if that does not work for you, we will arrange an alternative delivery time that does.



5. If you’re not at the address when we try to deliver, we will spend 10 minutes trying to reach you. If, for whatever reason, you’re not able to make it to the address in time then we’ll also take your instruction (i.e. wait longer, leave with neighbour, etc.).




6. We will never leave you a doormat decoration, nor will we ever cause you to drive out to a depot or wait in line at a post office to pick up your delivery.



7. We will always seek your feedback on every delivery we do for you and act upon it to improve the quality of our next delivery. To make our service transparent we will also post your feedback (the good and the bad) live and unedited onto both our feedback page and onto Twitter.



8. If you ever have any questions about our service or your delivery, please call us on 0844 879 2211. Our customer service team is available to help 24/7.



If you have a crappy experience with Shutl, then shame on us. We’ll take accountability and make it up to you. If you don’t think we are are living up to our promise then I want to hear from you. You can reach me on: tom AT shutl.co.uk.

by Guy Westlake on November 18, 2011 at 10:24 am | Comment

Oh yes, the time of seasonal delivery surveys is upon us!

Don’t worry though, here at the Launchpad we’ve read them all and extracted the most interesting factoids so you don’t have to… and acknowledging that few people gets as turned on by delivery data as we do, marketing Guy has even tarted them up and created a pretty infographic for your delectation!




  1. In 2007, 29 million people received at least one home delivery over the course of the year (58% of the adult population).  By 2010 this had increased by 22% to 35m people (69% of the adult population).1
  2. In 2007, the average online shopper spent £475 over the course of the year, increasing by 44% to £682 in 2010.1
  3. Although the greatest users of home delivery are aged 35-54, the fastest growing age bracket are the 55+.1
  4. 48% of internet shoppers say that they shop online in order to save time.1
  5. 58% of shoppers say they would be more likely to use home delivery if the service was faster or more convenient.1
  6. 22% of shoppers say they would use home delivery more frequently if the charges were lower.1
  7. Almost one in ten people (9%) say they have been put off online shopping this Christmas because of previous problems with delivery.2
  8. At 27%, more than a quarter of all those polled say they had encountered a problem with online Christmas deliveries in the past.2
  9. 61% of people say they blame the retailer if a delivery is late.3
  10. 12% of people say they chose to shop with a competitor after being left waiting for too long.3
  11. 36% of customers say that when made to wait for a delivery they have complained to friends about the company, with 9% posting their complaint online.  Conversely, 32% claimed they would recommend a company for an on-time delivery.3
  12. 26% of shoppers have taken a day’s holiday to wait in for a delivery, at an estimated cost of £177 per person per annum in lost time and wages.3
  13. Almost one in 10 Britons (9%) have taken a day off sick to wait for a delivery.3





Sources:

1 Verdict UK Home Delivery & Fulfilment, November 2011 (sample: 1,944 UK consumer interviews)

2Postcode Anywhere, November 2011 (sample: 1,000 UK consumers)

3 TOA, November 2011 (sample: 1,006 UK consumers

by Guy Westlake on October 25, 2011 at 4:15 pm | Comment

To celebrate the countdown to Halloween, we’re asking you to recount your most grim and ghastly tales of delivery disaster!

The web is jam packed with bloodcurdling horror stories – from the mysterious cards that arrive through the letterbox without any warning to packages that arrive as if mauled by unknown fiends.  A quick social search of traditional delivery networks gives a harrowing view into an evil underbelly of customer dissatisfaction. Opinion aggregator Amplicate shows that out of 4,844 online comments mentioning the four largest UK couriers, 72% were classified as ‘hate’ comments!  We want to dive a little deeper and hear exactly what it is that makes you squirm in your sleep…

To enter the competition, all you need to do is ‘like’ Shutl on Facebook and post a video or photo (or link to a video or photo) onto our wall of the delivery nightmare that really makes your blood run cold.  There’s £100 of Argos vouchers up for grabs, with the prize going to the entry with the most ‘likes’ at 12pm on Monday 31st October*… so get your friends involved!

*In the event of a draw, Shutl reserves the right to pick the winner, with bonus points going to the entry that makes us laugh the most.

by Guy Westlake on October 6, 2011 at 4:39 pm | Comment

e-tradecounter.co.uk is an independent heating, plumbing and electrical wholesaler servicing all market sectors – from trade accounts through to home owners.

Keen to expand and improve the range of services that it offers customers, e-tradecounter.co.uk has now launched Shutl delivery for London based shoppers!

The service is currently being trialled and is only available to customers ordering over the phone for delivery to qualifying postcodes within the M25.


Just ring 01279 426 832 to place an order and have your items delivered right away!


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