Any consumers struggling to finish their Christmas shopping online are in for some bad news – e-retailers are no longer able to process and deliver orders in time for December 25th unless a hefty price is paid for postage and packing.
This means that last minute gifts will have to be purchased in crowded shopping centres or on the high street, where thousands of shoppers are expected to converge over the next few days to put the finishing touches to the festive season.
However, those who did manage to beat the deadline and get their online orders in have been asked to rate their experiences by Foresee, which has compiled a table of the top 40 online retailers in the UK based on customer satisfaction.
The report compared almost 10,000 consumer reviews against results from November and December 2011 and found that online giant Amazon offers the most in terms of customer satisfaction. Play.com, Apple and John Lewis also performed well in the survey, no doubt due to the free delivery services and returns policies offered around the festive season.
Amazon’s customer satisfaction score was 86 per cent, while Debenhams, which appears 8th on the table, wowed researchers with a 4 point climb to 76 per cent.
Unfortunately, this week’s bad news continues for budget airline Ryanair. It appeared at number 40 on the table with a score of 61 per cent – dropping three points since last year and opening a 7 point gap between itself and 39th placed Netflix. This study appeared only days after a poll by consumer champions Which? ranked Ryanair as the worst UK commercial airline in terms of customer satisfaction.
With online shopping becoming increasingly popular with UK consumers, tables such as these could greatly affect business for both high and low ranked retailers in the year to come. This could mean that low scoring retailers could miss out on a huge and still growing industry, while top ranking businesses stand to increase their market share next Christmas.
According to IMRG Capgemini’s monthly e-Retail Sales Index, UK consumers broke the record for online shopping turnover in a month during November, with shoppers spending a massive £8.4 billion in only 30 days. This has been attributed to consumers wishing to be prepared for Christmas earlier than ever this year in case the economy dropped back into recession in early December.
IMRG Capgemini also estimates that more than 50 per cent of all Christmas purchases are made online now – something which will undoubtedly strike a chord with struggling high street retailers. Yet ForeSee believes that, despite some low scoring retailers appearing on the table, online shopping is proving to be a better option than hitting the high street for UK consumers.
ForeSee chief executive Larry Freed says; “UK retailers are clearly providing customers with positive online experiences in general, or customers would not be moving so decisively to online shopping.
“However, our findings suggest that efforts to improve the customer experience are sluggish and could be significantly improved.”
For those still wishing to purchase online in time for Christmas, the news is something of a mixed bag. It is still possible to receive orders from several retailers before the 25th dawns – at a cost.
Amazon will deliver all orders made before 9.30am on Christmas Eve, although consumers will have to pay £14.99 for a special delivery charge.
Fortunately, Tesco has combined the online and commercial property sectors seamlessly in order to save consumers money. Orders can be made online at tesco.com and collected from the customer’s nearest store in order to avoid steep delivery charges.
Did you use an e-retailer when buying Christmas gifts this year and, if so, did you have a positive or negative experience of online shopping? Do you think that, by next Christmas, shopping centres and high street stores will be all but obsolete in the festive buying frenzy, or will town centres always play a role in Christmas shopping in your opinion?
