Snow Valley 2010 Online Retail Delivery Report

Snow Valley, one of the UK’s leading providers of ecommerce technology and services, have just released their 2010 Online Retail Delivery Report, sponsored by MetaPack.

The report details how over 200 UK retailers were tested and the 112-page report once again shows progress in the flexibility and quality of the delivery service proposition that customers can expect for online retailers.

The Snow Patrol,  Snow Valley’s blog, highlights the top trends over the past five years:

• 64% of the retailers provided a choice of delivery times and charges in 2009, up from just 54% in 2005
• 84% provided online order tracking, allowing the customer to check the status of their delivery, compared to just 59% in 2005
• Premium services have remained proportionally static over the past five years – Saturday delivery was available on 26% of sites compared with 23% in 2005. Nominated day and time of day delivery had increased from 14% in 2005 to 15% in 2009.
• Interestingly, larger retailers were much more likely to support premium services – 53% of those on the Hitwise Top 50 Shops List had a Saturday service – which suggests that the demand for such services is there.
• 39% of retailers now offer free delivery over a certain order value threshold, compared to just 24% in 2005
• 15% of the retailers offered some sort of collect from store option, up from 12% in 2007
• Standard delivery charges have crept up very slightly over the past 5 years but charges for premium services, such as nominated day delivery, appear to be decreasing
• Cut-off times are getting later – one retailer could accept orders until 11pm for next-day delivery

For more information, check out The Snow Patrol blog, or download a copy of the report for yourself.