27% of top UK retailers do not communicate during delivery

Recently published research by ParcelLab shows that the largest online retailers in the United Kingdom are not actively communicating with shoppers during the delivery period. Only four of the 100 largest UK retailers in the country provide customers with personalised information about their order status. 27 out of 100 do not communicate at all during delivery.

In the extensive study, ParcelLab looked at the shipping and delivery process of the top 100 UK online retailers. According to their findings, e-commerce companies are basically ignoring the customer once they have placed an order.

Delivery options at UK retailers

The UK E-Commerce Shipping Study 2019 shows that 94% of the top 100 online retailers do not offer their customers the opportunity to choose between delivery partners. In addition, there’s not much choice regarding delivery times. Although 72% of the most popular UK retailers offer express delivery, only 7% offers same-day delivery and just 42% offer weekend delivery. Only 25% of UK online retailers give customers the opportunity to pick a time slot for delivery.

Shipping costs

12% of UK retailers offer free shipping and 65 retailers offer free shipping when minimum order value is met. This minimum order value ranges between £10-£150. The UK based online retailers who do apply a shipping cost, have an average of £3.99 per shipment. After the customer has completed the order in the webshop, things become quiet. Most online retailers stop directly communicating with their customers and let customers check the order status themselves. Just 11% of the top 100 UK online retailers communicate with their customers during the shipping period. The other 89% of online retailers let the delivery carrier do the communication or just do not communicate any information regarding the delivery at all.