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…
