How important is Next day delivery from a website shop? Is 3-5 days acceptable?

[CourierCompare]

You can probably justify 3-5 day delivery if your P+P is free or at alow cost.

 

[judith@homescents]

Hi
I have 2 web sites and also trade sales and I feel strongly all web customers expect delivery within 48 hours at the latest. We aim to despatch the same day as the order and we get good reports back from customers that we have exceeded their expectations. We are in the immediate society where everyone wants things straightaway. Good luck with your business.
Bye
Judith

 

[FreelanceSoftwareDeveloper]

Find a different dropshipper!

Dropshipping shouldn't mean delays for your customer. I have just launched a new dropshipping website and I guarantee next day despatch, will despatch same day where possible.

So as long as you are on the ball and placing orders quickly the fact you are dropshipping shouldn't really be a problem. If you also work full time or have other commitments and only place orders once a day then a delay of 1 day is the most you should see.

 

[bridges]

If you can't complete the orders yourself same day, would it make a difference if you had someone completing the orders on your behalf? Someone, even within your family/friends who could help out?

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

Over the Christmas period I listened to whinges from customers that had ordered after 5pm on Christmas eve, and hadn't had the item delivered to them by the 27th.

There is no forgivness or understanding in this market now. Next day delivery is becoming the norm. Some, like Viking, give SAMEDAY delivery for orders made in great big parts of the UK.

Also, remember that customers will count the weekends, and the delivery companies don't. So 3-5 day delivery is actually 5-7 days.

1-2 days - expected.
2-4 days - just about tolerated.
3 + - unhappy customer chasing you.

 

[Alicatt]

Interesting thread!

Many of our products are made/finished to order, and most orders are multi item so same/next day delivery is impossible. And as a wedding business it's highly seasonal so we find that at peak times, we are reaching 4-5 days for dispatch on the bigger orders. We can usually do 2 days turnaround 9 months of the year but sales more than double in the 3 peak months. It's also not the type of job where you can just bring in a few temps and they'll be up to speed in a few days.

We do have dispatch time messages on the site and we do offer an express delivery (where possible).

This is our 5th year and we are finding customers are noticebly more demanding about delivery times than in previous years. We will definitely be looking at ways we can bring the times down without compromising on quality or pushing staffing costs through the roof.

 

[Eunoia]

Delivery time doesn't bother me either, i'll happily wait, in fact, I like the anticipation, and it's not very often that I need most thing anytime soon.

 

[Mister B]

If time doesn't matter, then why, having analysed my returns, over 90% of our customers used goods via the first class service and not the second?

Mister B

 

[spencergate]

One of the joys of shopping is the gratification of having something new. Consumers want instant gratification. So if they order something, they want it in their hands ASAP.

You might get away with longer delivery times for business items, bu if it's "consumer items" you need to get things into their hands in 1 - 2 days max.

 

[Alicatt]

One of the joys of shopping is the gratification of having something new. Consumers want instant gratification. So if they order something, they want it in their hands ASAP.

You might get away with longer delivery times for business items, bu if it's "consumer items" you need to get things into their hands in 1 - 2 days max.

I disagree with the last point. If I order something for my business it's usually because I need it now (or probably yesterday).

Felt really annoyed that packaging supplies I ordered last Friday weren't dispatched until Tuesday.

Whereas if I order crafty stuff for myself, I'm usually happy to wait a few days.

 

[scott_dciron]

As a customer I will also go with a retailer that offers next day delivery as standard over one that doesn't even if it costs more (within reason).

As a business, we ONLY offer next day delivery because that how important we feel it is to offer a quality service.

 

[movietub]

If this thread was started 3 years ago I think the repsonses would be very different. As it is its clear the majority of responders expect 1-2 days max. So that answers the original question. Reading through it's hard to have any doubt.

I think that this goes way beyond delivery times though, the general attitude of ecommerce has changed drastically since a few years ago.

When ecommerce was relatively new to most people it was possible to sell just about anything with a little effort. You could start a new online business with next to nothing, and do quite well by following a few basic tricks. The shoppers were still mostly used to shopping on the high street, not online. They had no real expectations. There were few standards amongst e-retailers either. I remember most sites didn't seem to have a phone number even!

But that was very much during the infancy of ecommerce. It didn't take long for serious players to move in with serious investment. All of a sudden you are not competing with 'another bedroom seller', you are competing with websites which may well have been launched with £100k+ investment.

My point is that those hoping to enter the market now need to give up the belief that its easy, or that they can be a little more relaxed and develop the business at their own rate. It's like any other market place out there now. You have to identify a free space, plan well and hit hard on the way in. Realistically that now means: Hold a stock, get a good courier for next day delivery, take SEO seriously, find a tangible USP for your product and/or site, do a propper job of designing and testing your site.

I did all the above on the fly after setting up. I really don't think that would work today though. Certainly if we went back to the old ways we would be stomped out in weeks by competitors!

 

[KateCB]

I agree movietub, we did much the same thing 11 years ago - pure e-commerce... it wasn't that we didn't think to put things in place, it was so new we didn't know WHAT to put in place!