The UK’s online clothing and footwear customers have high expectations when it comes to delivery cost and times, with 43.3% only willing to spend £5 on delivery costs and 42% not prepared to pay at all, according to leading data and analytics company GlobalData. The survey by GlobalData found that 43.3% of consumers would be prepared to pay a maximum of £5 to receive an order quickly, while only 15.3% are willing to pay more than £5. These figures emphasise the importance for retailers to either offer free delivery options or limit delivery costs to less than £5 to maximise conversion.
James Yacoub, Retail Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Retailers must ensure that minimum basket value thresholds are in place for free delivery to ensure economic viability, but they must also consider that if the basket value is too high and difficult to reach, customers may be put off at having to spend so much. New Look, for example only offers free delivery on orders containing full price items totaling more than £100. The store’s standard home delivery costs £3.99, which may alienate shoppers who may have purchased if the threshold was lower.”
Yacoub continues: “Introducing a delivery saver scheme may be a viable option as it can reduce cost per delivery for customers – usually if they place three or more orders – but can also be an effective method to encourage loyalty. Retailers such as JD Sports and boohoo.com have offered saver schemes for a number of years and we are now seeing more retailers such as Topshop getting on board by offering unlimited delivery for a year for £9.95.”
