Our focus on Christmas continues this week. In this week’s opinion piece Ben Willis, managing director international of Radial, advises on how to delight customers with delivery and returns over the festive period. Centiro meanwhile warns that if the UK is to maintain its international lead around delivery retailers must (more…)
The countdown to Christmas is now well and truly on – in less than three weeks it will all be done and dusted and some of us will even already be thinking about returning to work. Continuing to manage the peak – and the deliveries that surround it – will (more…)
So Black Friday/fiveday/cyber Monday has drawn to a close and – touch wood – so far no disaster stories in the world of delivery. It seems that retailers and their partners have taken note of lessons learnt from the past. That’s not to say the market isn’t under intense pressure (more…)
So Black Friday is almost here. Although technically for many it began days – and for some even weeks – ago as retailers look to stretch out their deals. And despite record sales predictions it looks once again like it’s going to be a period of extended offers – rather (more…)
AI is having a huge impact on the future of retail and promises some really exciting stuff – including the ability to better predict customers’ buying intentions before they know themselves. This offers great opportunity for marketing but perhaps even greater opportunity for getting the right stock in the right place (more…)
The shops are filling up with Christmas stock, the delivery promises and pledges are being made and the Christmas ad campaigns are launching. It is perhaps only fitting therefore that delivery is being made the star this Christmas for a number of retailers already including Argos and Amazon. Argos’ ad (more…)
One of the biggest announcements in the last week has been that of Amazon Key, a new in-home delivery service that will launch in the US on November 8. As ever the challenge of getting a delivery to you when you are out and about is the Holy Grail that (more…)
How do you decide exactly what customers want? Do they want fast? Do they want free? It’s the question that retailers – and their delivery partners – constantly battle with. A new report in the last week suggests that free isn’t necessarily the expectation but that once spend or delivery (more…)
There is a box sitting on my dining room table. It has sat there for weeks. It’s two cycling jackets I must return to Wiggle. Last week I got as far as printing out the returns labels (only I was out of printer ink on the second so had to (more…)
Last week’s eDelivery Conference was a collection of the latest thinking and trends in the delivery sector. Logistics expert Walter Blackwood was one of the speakers at the event and shared his view about why the convergence of stock is key trend. Meanwhile at John Lewis we heard about the (more…)
The news this week that Royal Mail workers are planning strike action will have set retailers’ nerves on edge. Managing peak is hard enough without the threat that parcels simply won’t get delivered at one of the busiest times of the year. It’s probable that the action will be averted – (more…)
Homebase hit the headlines this week after suspending its home delivery service temporarily. The company is in the midst of a systems and platform revamp and is also changing how it delivers its product ranges so has halted the service whilst it does so. The company is not the only (more…)
We all know fashion shoppers often have an “I want it now” attitude to getting the looks from the catwalk into their hands as soon as possible but Amazon’s one hour delivery from catwalk to consumer took the idea to new heights this week. Whilst it’s not clear how many (more…)
Ok. So I’m going to do it. I’m going to mention the one word we are all trying not to think about yet – Christmas – with the story that Doddle and Cancer Research UK are expanding their click and collect partnership across the CRUK stores in time for the (more…)
Two new studies this week show how important packaging and labels are to customers in terms of their perception of a retail brand. And it also shows many retailers are still getting it wrong. Whether for function or promotion packaging can have a huge influence – especially when it comes (more…)
Click and collect is back in the spotlight this week with the announcement by Sainsbury’s that it is to launch an Argos click and collect service through 100 stores later this year. The move follows a six store trial and further expands the company’s delivery reach as well as continuing to (more…)
Innovation is a rather over-used word but can be as much about finding different ways of doing things than simply something new. Jonathan Smith, CEO at APC Overnight outlines some of the ways things are changing in the delivery world and finds that hiding behind technology isn’t always the answer. (more…)
Same day delivery is a key theme of this week’s newsletter after Sainsbury’s announced a new trial that means it is the first retailer in the UK to offer a collection service in under an hour. The company is trialling a 30-minute service from its Pimlico store in London which (more…)
They may have died a death amongst consumers – remember the hype that was Google Glass? – but in the warehouse environment smart glasses are becoming the new standard for logistics, according to DHL Supply Chain, which has announced the completion of a successful trial of the technology. The company (more…)
Free delivery or fast? Do you know which your customers really prefer? It seems many retailers don’t with a new report this week suggesting the balance is different to what retailers think. It showed that the majority of customers (86%) prefer free to fast and yet retailers believe the majority (more…)