E-commerce nurtures culture of instant gratification amongst UK shoppers

Friday, August 31, 2018 - 10:39 by Simon Crisp

A new survey from TrustFord has found that a growing proportion of British consumers are eager for faster order deliveries after they have carried out safe shopping online.

The Sun reports that a tenth of the respondents to the study said that they would not be happy unless they were able to take advantage of next day delivery when buying products online.

Meanwhile at the other end of the spectrum, only two per cent of web users would willingly wait for seven days or more to receive the items they ordered.

The reasons behind the rise of impatience were covered by the analysis, with 78 per cent of consumers saying that they blamed safe shopping online itself for making them less likely to accept delays. Seventy per cent said that social media was another important factor in making them crave the immediacy of next day or even same day delivery.

This desire for speedy delivery does not just apply to inexpensive everyday items, but also to high value, customisable products, including cars. A fifth of those questioned said that they would prefer to have a new vehicle delivered to them in less than a week, while 50 per cent said that they could just about accept the idea of having to wait a fortnight for it to arrive.

Report spokesperson, Stuart Foulds, argued that the always-online nature of modern life meant that most people become dissatisfied if a task cannot be completed quickly. This definitely applies to online shopping, especially since retailers now offer a wide range of delivery options, many of which aim to appease those customers looking for instant gratification.

Quicker delivery times may be made possible as autonomous technologies evolve, with delivery drones and self-driving vehicles likely to speed up this process further and make shoppers even less patient.