The first quarter of 2015 saw the best “on-time or attempted” rates in the delivery industry, according to the IMRG MetaPack UK Delivery Index.
The Index found that 94.6% of orders were delivered within the promised timeframes in March – with the Q1 2015 average standing at 94%. The March figure was supported by a very low attempted delivery rate (2.9%).
This follows the lowest-ever on-time / attempted delivery performance in December 2014 of just 85%, which was blamed on the huge backlog of orders processed on Black Friday.
Kees de Vos, Chief Commercial Officer at MetaPack, said: “It’s great to see such a bounce-back in the industry – clearly, retailers are benefitting from a renewed focus on delivery offerings and processes. Next day deliveries are proving to be more popular than ever, and are likely to continue to be an excellent marketing tool for retailers. With this year’s Black Friday and Christmas in the not-so-distant future, it seems that retailers are already thinking ahead and adapting their strategies to ensure that last year’s issues are avoided.”
His remarks reflect a seasonally uncharacteristic increase in the use of next day delivery services being experienced by the industry: up 18% year-on-year as a proportion of all services used with, according to the Index, no obvious reason.
Andrew Starkey, head of e-logistics at IMRG said: “These results, coupled with a record low in failed first time delivery at 2.9%, mean that only eight out of every 100 orders are currently not being delivered on time / first time in accordance with the customer’s expectations. We expect to hit record volumes in the UK this year with over 1 billion orders being dispatched by UK retailers. These service results create a good foundation on which to build.”
See also:
UK online parcel volumes up in January and February
1 billion UK parcels to ship in 2015
