Research is showing that while online shopping is getting increasingly popular, delivery delays are having a massive impact on shoppers’ attitudes and behaviours.
According to Power Retail’s latest Trajectory report, 59 per cent of online shoppers are currently experiencing delivery delays.
Head of analytics, David Fear, says logistics and delivery networks have been overwhelmed since the Covid-19 pandemic sent online shopping volumes through the roof and the worst is yet to come during the peak November-December Christmas period.
“Demand for online shopping has doubled year-on-year and the expected peak volumes for online retail in November are set to cause a major meltdown,” he explains.
“This is also supported by our research, which found that the highest retailer traffic in the last 12 months was in November 2019 and we’re already close to reaching those levels now.”
The report also shows that 55 per cent of Aussie online shoppers are worries about delivery delays impacting their online Christmas shopping this year and 78 per cent says they are going to start their online Christmas shopping earlier this year to avoid being impacted by delivery delays.
“…We’re seeing that delivery delays are already affecting the majority of online shoppers. What does that mean for peak season? We can’t see how the current online delivery infrastructure in Australia is going to cope―where would the extra capacity come from?
“Online shoppers can smell it too and we are going to see a massive shift in their Christmas spending timeframe, with nine out of 10 online shoppers planning to start by early November at the latest. That’s unheard of,” adds Fear.
Indeed, 89 per cent of online shoppers plan to start their online Christmas shopping by early November and only four per cent will wait until Black Friday.
“It has very real implications for Black Friday and Cyber Monday particularly, where according to our data online shoppers are already put off by the prospect of not getting their parcels in time for Christmas and will be bringing their shopping much further forward.”
