Most popular carrier
E-commerce in the UK is still booming, with last year’s sales up 11% on 2018. This growth is also driving the delivery business. But what is the current state of the UK e-commerce delivery market?
According to research conducted by Parcelhub, which interviewed 100 business to business and business to customer mid-market UK retailers, around six in 10 retailers offer next-day delivery, while two thirds offer 48-hour delivery.
When orders need to be delivered, half of respondents said they offer the possibility to leave the parcel in a safe place, 31% offer Collect+ and only one in four offer tailored delivery windows.
The survey sought to find out how retailers respond to customers’ demands regarding flexible delivery options.
Royal Mail most popular carrier
The research showed that four in 10 retailers use a third-party delivery company, with 60% working directly with carriers. When it comes to the carrier choice, Royal Mail is the most popular at 37%, followed by Hermes at 35%, Parcelforce at 22%, and DHL and DPD both at 20%.
Among the respondents, almost 90% said they were satisfied with carrier collections and 83% with the delivery service.
In January, we spoke to Mike Pitt, eBay’s shipping and logistics director. After revealing Royal Mail performed better than ever for eBay’s marketplace sellers during Peak, Mike said: ‘Royal Mail’s postmen and women are the face of our business. In an e-commerce business, they are the only real physical interaction we have. Building that human touch and that relationship between postmen and women and our customers is incredibly important.’
Press play to hear Mike talk about delivery trends for 2020 and how he expects customers to continue to expect to have faster deliveries available as an option.
‘I don’t think everything will move to Next Day delivery,’ he said. ‘But I think consumers are demanding more and more and this will continue to grow.
Keep watching RMtv to find out more about why e-commerce is playing a big part in our changing parcels network.
