UK shoppers “most likely” to abandon purchase due to poor delivery options

UK shoppers are almost twice as likely as their German counterparts to abandon their online shopping basket or switch retailers if delivery options are too slow or don’t meet their needs, according to a new report from BearingPoint.

The ‘Fine-Tune Your Delivery Proposition’ report, based on a survey of 3,000 customers in the UK, France, and Germany, found that 63 percent of UK shoppers abandon online purchases due to poor delivery options, compared to 38 percent of German customers and 54 percent of online shoppers in France.

The research notes that delivery options are key to customer loyalty and that price is the most important factor to customers, followed by location, time slot options and speed. It also adds that German shoppers are most price-sensitive to online delivery charges, while French consumers are the most willing to pay higher delivery prices.

BearingPoint adds that when retailers do get their delivery options right, customer loyalty significantly rises, with the majority of shoppers in the UK (91 percent), France (87 percent) and Germany (83 percent) visiting their favourite sites first when online shopping.

Stuart Higgins, partner at BearingPoint, said in a statement: “The right delivery strategy is essential to the success of your online retail business in what is an increasingly competitive market. It promotes customer loyalty, helping you to grow and maintain your customer base, and enables you to control margin and balance service levels. However, as our research demonstrates, getting your delivery strategy wrong could result in lost customers and sales, margin erosion and falling short of customer expectations.”

“With delivery preferences varying widely across the three European countries we surveyed, there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach as delivery offerings provided by retailers must reflect the business you’re in, where you operate and your customers’ specific wants and needs.”

Home delivery is, in most cases, the preferred delivery location, but the report also found that in the 34 percent of customers in the UK and 25 percent in Germany, click and collect customers say they prefer collecting their items from the retailer’s branded store, driven by security and the ease of returning items, where needed. However, in France, 27 percent said that the supermarket was their favourite pick-up location, and only 21 percent prefer to collect from the retailer’s store.