You know how it is; you hear a knocking at the door, you put down your brew and rush to the door, only to find a ‘we missed you’ note on the floor and then have to go and pick up your parcel that you’ve been so excited for from the post office the next day. Whilst this tale has become normalized, it is a real issue for ecommerce sellers and consumers alike. In order to shed light on the issue, Citizen’s Advice have ranked couriers based on survey results. Let’s take a look how the delivery service providers fare in the league table.
So, How Were The Delivery Service Providers Ranked?
The survey asked participants to rank different service providers based on customer service, trust, and how many problems they’d faced. What was worrying was that none of the service providers received more than 3 out of 5 star overall. The highest overall score was Amazon Logistics with a score of 2.75 stars out of 5.
Bottom of the list was Hermes. Hermes received a score of 1.5 stars, only just bettered by Yodel, who received 1.75 stars. When looking at the individual scores, the result seem to get more concerning. For example, 48% of participants claimed they were unable to achieve their desired outcome when their delivery had an issue, a figure that rose to 56% for Yodel.
Why Are Couriers Struggling So Much?
The obvious answer seems to be the pandemic. This is evidenced by the fact that the Citizen’s Advice’s website page ‘if something you ordered hasn’t arrived’ has been viewed 160,000 times this year. This is almost a 70% increase on the same period in 2019 before the pandemic. The truth is that these service providers have struggled to keep pace with the massive surge in ecommerce.
Throughout lockdowns, since people couldn’t shop in physical shops they have instead been shopping online. This has put a massive strain on couriers. Citizen’s Advice are suggesting that if people want to avoid missing deliveries, it is definitely worth checking with a neighbour or local shop whether your parcels can be delivered there as an alternative. It is also worth trying to talk directly to the seller if you are buying from a sole trader.
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