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SprintProject and GS1 France have launched in partnership a barometer “Delivery services: realities on the expectations of the French”, intended to understand and analyze the habits and expectations of the French in terms of delivery, but also to detect the emergence of new needs and new trends. A study conducted by OpinionWay, with a sample of 2005 people from January 10 to 22, 2018, shows very clearly that the terms and services surrounding delivery play a major and sometimes prohibitive role in consumer purchasing behavior.
With the development of e-commerce, buying items online has become obvious for many French people. This approach concerns all age and gender categories who no longer hesitate to go to e-commerce sites to obtain a whole range of products. Thus, more than one in two French people (56%) buy online at least once a month, and one in five people (19%) even order at least once a week. This appetite for e-commerce concerns all categories of products and in particular those of personal equipment (clothing, fashion, health, beauty), purchased by 64% of online buyers and who achieve an average of 7 purchasing acts per year.
Note that food products are distinguished by a higher purchasing frequency: if only 28% of online shoppers declare having made food shopping purchases online during the last 12 months, those who purchased these products made respectively 13 purchasing acts and 9 purchasing acts on average.
Online shoppers satisfied with the delivery methods available to them and interested in additional services
First positive lesson to emerge from this study: Generally speaking, people who buy online say they are satisfied with the delivery methods offered to them. As a result, 90% of them declare that they were able to trace their purchases, 88% that their delivery was of good quality and 87% that it was reliable. Online consumers are also positive about delivery fitting into their lifestyle (86%) and value for money (80%).
Nevertheless, online buyers express a strong interest in seeing certain delivery methods emerge even if they do not necessarily appear ready to pay more to benefit from them. Above all, they recognize the interest in traditional delivery services, already widely used, such as home delivery (93% of interest, 17% would be willing to pay more to use it), delivery to relay points (89% of interest, 7% ready to pay more), delivery to a store (79% and 5%) or to a third party (78% and 6%).
Although online buyers have so far had little experience with delivery at atypical times or very fast delivery, they express interest in the development of this type of service. Already widespread delivery methods, such as next day delivery (86% of interest) or Saturday (83%), attract high interest. Online consumers would be willing to pay more for certain deliveries for even faster service. Thus, 63% of online shoppers express interest in 30-minute delivery and 18% would be willing to pay more for this type of service. Similarly, 16% would agree to pay more for one-hour delivery, 15% for two-hour delivery, 15% for same-day delivery, and 14% for Sunday delivery.
In addition to the convenience of fast delivery, online consumers are interested in other complementary services. 86% of them express their interest in the possibility of unpacking the package in front of the delivery person, 79% would like to have the delivered equipment installed, and 28% of them would even be ready to pay more for this service.
Delivery terms, as a primary criterion in choosing an online sales site, can also be a reason for abandoning a purchase.
If the price of the products remains the number 1 criterion for choosing a site (73%) for online shopping, the delivery terms appear in 2nd position and are perceived as decisive for 60% online buyers. The availability of products is the 3nd selection criterion (51%).
Delivery terms are particularly scrutinized by people aged 50 and over (65%, compared to 54% for people aged under 35).
Online shoppers are particularly demanding regarding delivery when making “pleasure” purchases. They thus indicate that they pay special attention to delivery methods when they make online purchases for a particular occasion (89%, of which 43% consider that this is " Very important ") or when they buy to have fun (84%).
In a general way, Bad delivery experiences encountered by consumers can have real consequences for e-commerce sites: 20 % respondents say they no longer want to buy on the site after experiencing a delay. 67% of online buyers admit to having already encountered at least one problem during delivery.
If a successful delivery guarantees customer satisfaction, the conditions and terms surrounding it are just as important for the consumer. So more than 8 in 10 online shoppers (82%) have already abandoned an online purchase halfway through the process. The main reasons for abandonment primarily concern delivery conditions which may be considered unsatisfactory: 64% of online consumers have already abandoned a purchase due to delivery costs considered too high, 41% for delays that are too long and 22% for a lack of transparency on these costs.
Delivery terms also appear to be recurring reasons for abandonment both due to delivery dates which may not be suitable (21%), as well as an inadequate delivery method (20%) or delivery location (19%).
If consumers can be more understanding in the event of problems caused by carriers and not by merchants (behavior of the delivery person or poor reception point of the package) they are much more severe when the origin of the problem is directly linked to the e-merchant. Unsatisfactory refund conditions (84% would no longer purchase on the site), unsatisfactory return conditions (82%), never receiving your order (81%) or even a product that does not correspond to the description presented (68% ) are among the main sources of discontent. It is therefore vital for online sales sites not to neglect all of these problems which can have harmful consequences for their activity.
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