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By Salesupply - A vast post-purchase study, carried out by e–commerce customer care and fulfillment specialist Salesupply together with post-purchase experience provider parcelLab, highlights significant gaps in delivery reliability, tracking transparency, customer service availability, and performance for the top 100 UK retailers.
\n\n\n\nThe UK’s Top 100 Retailers’ Post-Purchase Secrets Report 2024 identifies key areas within the post-purchase journey where retailers need to improve to enhance customer satisfaction and retention, emphasizing customer service and delivery processes.
\n\n\n\nThe study discovered that half of the retailers fail to provide essential delivery information on their product pages, impacting customer decisions and satisfaction.
“Our report underscores the critical need for UK retailers to enhance their services,” stated Tobi Buxhoidt, CEO at parcelLab. “Nearly 40% of retailers do not meet their advertised delivery times, highlighting a gap between customer expectations and service delivery. Reliable delivery is crucial for customer satisfaction and retention; many retailers are falling short. This is a stark reminder that timely and dependable delivery is foundational to customer satisfaction and retention.”
Although more than half (55%) of retailers link their tracking directly to the carrier, which improves transparency and trust with customers, nearly half are missing an opportunity to enhance customer experience through better tracking visibility.
The report also found that nearly 20% of retailers charge for delivery. Over 80% of retailers provide express delivery, averaging £6.93, with industries like health, cosmetics, and jewelry imposing the lowest surcharges. Express delivery options can attract customers who need their purchases quickly and are willing to pay for expedited shipping.
One aspect that strongly influences pre- and post-sales satisfaction is customer service. Good customer service contributes to long-term customer loyalty. Customers are more likely to make repeat purchases from retailers where they feel well looked after. The results of this study show that there is quite some room for improvement in the UK.
\n\n\n\nOpening hours not in line with consumer behavior
\n\n\n\nOne in four major UK online retailers is available only during business hours, and only one in seven offers customer service throughout the day and evening on weekdays and weekends. This misalignment with consumer behavior is a missed opportunity, as peak online shopping times in the UK are between 8pm and 9pm. Retailers not available during these hours risk losing customers to competitors with longer service hours.
Customer service channels
UK’s top online stores offer their customers a variety of contact channels (2.8 channels on average) ranging from telephone (the most offered channel) to social media, email or contact form and chat. WhatsApp, one of the younger generation‘s favourite communication channels, is not yet widely used as a customer service channel.
\n\n\n\nLong waiting times: please hold the line
\n\n\n\nStill, the phone might not be the ideal channel for reaching the customer service team: more than a quarter of the top shops do not publish a customer service number. And six of the 100 retailers reviewed hid the customer service number as well as they could.
Half of the retailers surveyed took over five minutes to answer phone calls, with the average being 8:23 minutes. Retailers also take some time to respond to customer enquiries on the other channels. Email enquiries to customer service were answered after an average of 12 minutes. On social media, testers waited an average of 10 minutes for a response and WhatsApp questions were answered after an average of 15 minutes.
Customer service technology to the rescue
\n\n\n\nTwo-thirds (66%) of online retailer now use chatbots to manage customer queries, reflecting an industry shift towards automation to enhance efficiency and manage customer interactions at scale. This adoption of automation highlights the need for retailers to balance efficiency with personalised customer service.
\n\n\n\nJonathon Huggett – Senior Business Developer at Salesupply added: “These findings should serve as a call to action for UK retailers to critically assess and improve their customer service to deliver the exceptional service that today’s customers expect and deserve.”
\n\n\n\nTo read the full report, click here!
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