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Shoppers expect online Christmas orders to arrive late

Thu, 24 Nov 2011
Nearly half of UK shoppers will go online for a bit of last minute shopping in the week leading up to Christmas, but over two thirds don’t trust e-retailers to deliver their gifts on time for the big day.

The Christmas 2011 Retail Experience Study, carried out by Eptica - the leading European provider of multi-channel customer interaction software, found that 46 per cent of consumers plan to shop online in the run up to Christmas day.

However, 67.3 per cent said they didn’t trust retailers to deliver on time and over a quarter (27 per cent) said they expected their deliveries to be late.

The research also revealed that shoppers’ mistrust of retailers’ ability to deliver items on time is made worse by unclear information and unhelpful answers to delivery questions on their websites.

Some 85 per cent of the top retail sites that were reviewed failed to provide straightforward details of final ordering dates to guarantee Christmas delivery, forcing shoppers to either work it out for themselves based on standard delivery information or call/email contact centres.

Commenting on the findings, Eptica marketing director Dee Roche, said: "Retailers need to do much more to reassure customers that their presents will arrive for Christmas day."

"Consumers obviously trust Father Christmas to deliver on time – but not the majority of online retailers."

Roche added: "Companies need to be clear, transparent and consistent with information – otherwise they risk losing vital Christmas sales as nervous customers shop elsewhere
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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