Royal Mail strike comes as delivery delays are already increasing

8 September 2022, London – Consumers are facing increasing delays in online delivery times, with 41% of consumers claiming their most recent order was delayed, according to a new study. The survey of more than 1,000 online consumers in the UK found 71% have had a negative delivery experience within the past three months, ranging from delays (41%), deliveries in different time slots (21%), parcels left in insecure locations (19%) or not turning up at all (10%).  The findings from e-commerce delivery platform Sendcloud come as Royal Mail workers are expected to go on strike on 8–9 September, but recent initiatives such as the government’s ‘Generation Logistics’ suggest staff shortages are an ongoing issue. One in five online shoppers (19%) were forced to wait between two and five days on top of the estimated delivery time, the study found, while 22% never received a notification of impending delays. Other issues found in the report include consumers receiving invalid tracking numbers (11%), incorrect tracking information (10%), and not being able to change the time of delivery (10%). Rising costs due to inflation will also affect 47% of respondents’ shopping plans this year, while increased labour costs (46%), product shortages (45%), and supply chain delays (40%) are also top concerns. Tolou advised online retailers to adopt a multi-courier strategy to overcome delivery delays and unexpected events. “Delivery expectations, inflation and staff shortages are pushing shipping providers to the edge. Bottlenecks are being created further down the line, and delivery experiences continue to decline as consumer wait times increase,” said Tolou. “Working with multiple couriers means retailers can switch between shipping networks if supply chains become congested and better balance demand between logistics suppliers. By offering multiple shipping options, consumers can decide where, when and how they want to receive their order and therefore have a more positive experience.  A pro-tip is to offer shipping to service points, as the delivery guarantee here is 100%, which reduces the pressure on delivery staff and shortens the delivery time,” Tolou concluded.  About Sendcloud

Sendcloud is an all-in-one shipping platform for e-commerce businesses that want to scale. It is our mission to empower online retailers to compete by optimising the full shipping journey from checkout to returns. Our solution turns e-commerce logistics from a bottleneck into an accelerator, making shipping a competitive advantage.

Founded in the Netherlands in 2012, Sendcloud has quickly become one of the fastest-growing scale-ups and leading shipping solutions in Europe, with more than 23,000 customers across the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium and Austria. Customers range from small to enterprise-sized online retailers and from industries including fashion and electronics to food & drink.