2m parcels face delays in retail back-end mayhem

With most retail outlets full of tumbleweed rather than shoppers on Black Friday, consumers opted to go online but they may well live to regret it after a new warning that 2.2 million potential Christmas presents bought last week may not arrive in time for the festivities.
According to estimates from business operations and supply chain management specialist LCP Consulting, 22 million parcels (worth over £1bn) – resulting from Black Friday transactions – will be home delivered over the next week, but 10% of them will not arrive on time.
And, during the whole Christmas period, LCP reckons 17 million parcels – worth £695m – will not arrive when the retailer promises.
The firm also estimates that £75m (7%) of orders will be delivered late because of the delivery company or the retailer, while £31m (2.9%) worth of orders will also need to be redelivered because of a carded delivery (customer not present at time of first delivery).
LCP warns that this only exacerbates customer’s frustrations with home deliveries as they get prepared for Christmas. Next day deliveries are expected to be up 15-20% from last year, meaning that an additional 4 million parcels will be expected to arrive with the customer the next day. This will put additional demands on retailers during their busiest online sales week of the year. Returns also being overlooked by the major retailers.
LCP retail partner Stuart Higgins said: “Retailers continue to pursue a faster and freer agenda, which is simply placing too much pressure on their back-end infrastructure and carrier partners to deliver. With 1 in 10 deliveries risking failure this Christmas, retailers need to ensure they don’t promise what they can’t deliver or the customers will simply find a competitor who can.”

TOPICS:Black Friday