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.
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!
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
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.
Warehouse brings up to the minute dresses, tops and accessories to women who love fashion and shop for the hottest trends. Thanks to Shutl you can now have these in your hands in minutes!
So, how do you Shutl from Warehouse?
Shutling from Warehouse couldn’t be easier. Just follow these simple steps and you’ll be looking great in a matter of minutes.
1. Find the products that you wish to buy online and go to checkout.
2. Click “check your availability” next to the Shutl logo.
3. Enter your postcode.
4. Add your delivery address.
5. Relax. Your delivery will arrive within as little as 90 minutes.
Like pretty much everyone else with an email account, we at Shutl await with great anticipation for the Money Saving Expert newsletter to fall into our in-boxes every week so we can bag ourselves the best deals possible. After the girls had had their shoe fix for the week, and we all checked that we aren’t paying to much for our bills, this little nugget caught our eye.
In the same week that Waitrose launch their online delivery option, putting the entire population of Hampshire in a state of unease when faced with the choice between Ocado and Waitrose own delivery, Money Saving Expert has a lighthearted thread dedicated entirely to interesting online grocery shopping substitutions. Amongst the somewhat normal sounding substitutions of 2 whole chickens when the customer ordered chicken wings, and the frankly fantastic dozen Creme Eggs instead of 12 Organic Free Range Eggs, there are some real head-scratchers. I feel sorry for the poor soul who ordered a pack of Durex Extra only to be presented with a box of Anadin Extra, and Shutldog was visibly appalled when we told him of a tin of dog food being replaced with cat food.
Humorous though they may be, these issues do raise an interesting point. If a customer orders groceries online that are unavailable, should we even attempt to replace them? On one hand, if you’re planning a roast dinner and a free range, organic, corn-fed chicken arrives instead of the value range one you ordered, kitchen dancing probably happens. On the other hand, only you know for which purpose you ordered said item, and even the smartest computer cannot follow one’s thought patterns. Spare a thought for the lady who decided to cook a curry on a dreary Thursday, but was presented with strawberry instead of plain yogurt in her online shopping. To most of us, strawberry definitely trumps plain, but it’s no use in curry!
At Shutl we believe in great customer service, and to that end would always encourage the retailers we work with to let the customer know in advance if they are going to be shutl’d a toaster instead of a kettle. We know everyone out there has their own horror story, so the next person who comes in to Shutl HQ for a cup of tea and brings with them a great tale of substitution is being offered a free tin of Whiskas and at least 15 minutes of unbearable cuteness curtsey of Shutldog!
On Thursday 17th February, the great and the good of the home delivery community descended upon the Victoria Park Plaza hotel in central London. Organised and hosted by delivery solution provider Metapack, the event sought to bring together suppliers and retailers to create a forum for sharing innovation and best practices within the sector.
With Shutl sponsoring the event, Tom and I attended, armed with some punchy statistics and bold statements. Tom gave a presentation entitled “Shutl: Putting the rocket into delivery” (see embedded slideshare below) which we hoped would wow the retailers in the room, as well as rattle some of the suppliers… In the very least it managed to stimulate some interesting conversations.
Key points:
As a relative novice to the sector, I was intrigued to see how the carriers present marketed themselves to their target audience. I’m afraid my conclusion was that for the traditional parcel carriers a large budget buys you a lot of marketing fluff and not much in the way of product enhancement, much less quantifiable benefits. There was much talk of consumer engagement, however I just ouldn’t see any good reason for engagement. I got the distinct impression of a market heading towards commoditisation.
Definitely room in this sector for agile innovators to create major waves and compelling consumer propositions. On that subject, we were impressed by the progress made by other “alternative” delivery solutions like ByBox and Collect+.
Hats off to Metapack for pulling off a great event and for managing such an impressive turnout on the day. I know from experience how hard it is to get the balance right between suppliers and customers, and it seemed to be absolutely spot on. Job very well done. We look forward to 2012!
The New York Times,
The events of 2009 have been met with a mixed sense of excitement and trepidation. There can be no doubt that this year has been an absolute rollercoaster of emotions! We wept as we watched Woolworths lead the way as the first of the victims of the credit crunch and we jumped for joy as Barak Obama took over the Presidency. Here at the Launch Pad, however, there was one event that moved us to our very core. One event that really made us stop to think (before leaping up and shouting “eureka!”).
The Royal Mail strikes in October and November had a huge impact on the retail industry at a time when annual sales figures, and indeed the state of the economy at large, were still very much in the balance. Recent studies by IMRG/Capgemini have since shown that this long running row over pay, jobs and modernisation directly led to a £53 million (or 5%) fall in online sales, damaging consumer confidence in the all important run up to Christmas. Nothing is more hurtful than the thought of happy shoppers finding themselves deprived of their shopping – even writing it is painful!
So we reflected on this, and eventually came to a tough conclusion: this setback for our beloved retail industry was, in a bizarre twist of fate, the catalyst for change that we needed. It was the perfect validation for everything we’d been working so hard on bringing to market. Like a phoenix from the ashes, Shutl would launch and with it usher a new era of e-Commerce! Or something like that… The Royal Mail was rowing over modernisation. Well, they need row no longer – we’re here!
At Shutl our goal is to bring delivery up to date with the advances made in all other areas of eCommerce. With people able to buy whatever they want in seconds, why should they wait days or even weeks to take receipt of delivery? Why should retailers have to put all their eggs in one basket and tie themselves in to long and costly service contracts with a single supplier? How can they mitigate the risk of disruption to a critical service without making their customers and shareholders suffer? Retail fulfilment is undoubtedly an area that is ripe for change…
So when will you be able to finally test drive Shutl for yourselves? Well, we’re going live with our first customers early in 2010. We can’t disclose dates quite yet, however we can promise you that some of your favourite high street stores will be shutling your goods to your door very soon.
Rest assured that we’ll be observing this Christmas shopping season very closely! Shutl may not be operating a live service, but we’ll be taking notes for next year. We’ll have launched, but we won’t be live – like a ghost of Christmas present.
So there’s the theory. The real question is can Shutl deliver? Fortunately, the answer is very straightforward.
Yes we can.
A recent piece in Internet Retailing perfectly highlights the problem that Shutl intends to solve.
A lack of convenient delivery options leads to customers abandoning their basket at checkout, meaning online retailers are missing out on a significant slice of business! Citing evidence that only 6.9% of online retailers offer evening deliveries, the article concludes that in order to keep existing customers, win new ones and stay ahead of the game, retailers must offer greater choice so that the customer can choose one that best suits them.
