UK consumers switching to premium delivery for online shopping

Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - 11:02 by Sarah Collinson

The latest figures suggest that consumer interest in economy delivery options offered by e-commerce firms is faltering in favour of premium alternatives which have shorter wait times.

Research from MetaPack gathered since 2007 implies a shift away from the cheapest options and harnessed data from over 150 retailers who offer safe shopping online.

In total, 57 per cent of consumers opt for paid premium delivery while 43 per cent choose budget or free postal packages. This represents a significant shift as three years ago close to 86 per cent of UK shoppers chose the latter over the former.

MetaPack's Patrick Wall said that even though big name retailers like Amazon and Play.com are both providers of solid free postage options, many people are choosing to pay a little extra for delivery in order to speed up the process and access their products in as short a time as possible.

Mr Wall believes that now retailers have been made aware of this trend there will be a push to promote the fastest next-day delivery service, in order to win custom rather than beating out competitors with free postage.

The ability to track parcels which are part of premium next-day delivery deals is seen as being key to the popularity of the service, according to Mr Wall. Those buying electrical products with high price tags are the most likely to shell out a fraction extra for speedy delivery, although the cheaper the product the more likely it is that a consumer will opt for economy to limit the total spend.

MetaPack is one of the businesses operating the evening delivery services to consumers living within the M25, a move which has, in part, been inspired by these shifting trends in safe shopping online.