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Every online shopper has tales of lost parcels, misleading delivery updates or the dreaded photo of a precious purchase outside some stranger\u2019s house. But far fewer had the choice in the first place of who delivered their latest bargain. Is this not an opportunity for a canny retailer?<\/p>\n
UK parcel volumes last year surpassed the peak they reached during the pandemic, according to regulator Ofcom. The domestic market grew at a rate of roughly 6 per cent last year. Despite this, though, delivery companies\u2019 revenue from shipping parcels rose just 0.9 per cent.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s perhaps not surprising, then, that service hasn\u2019t kept up. More than two-thirds of consumers have had a recent parcel problem, according to Ofcom, while a third of those polled by Citizens Advice had an issue with their latest delivery. Less than half of those customers who do complain about a shipment, Ofcom notes, are satisfied with the outcome.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Door-to-door delivery is a complex business that requires serious scale to be profitable, so competition is liable to be limited. Still, the growth of ecommerce is luring private equity interest, which offers hope. Apollo Global Management bought Evri<\/a>, formerly Hermes, in 2024. Advent International, meanwhile, may make a bid for Amsterdam-listed InPost, according to Sky News. InPost also owns UK home delivery service Yodel.<\/p>\n There\u2019s room for improvement: the Ofcom and CA surveys both ranked Yodel <\/a>and Evri bottom. Yet incentives are a problem too. Many network-like businesses involve a lasting relationship \u2014 think electricity or broadband. But ecommerce usually entails one-off interactions. Service considerations are muddied by the fact that it\u2019s the retailer, not the customer, who has the main relationship with the delivery company.<\/p>\n More power to the consumer might help. Many retailers already make a virtue of speedier, or free, delivery. But not many let the customer select which company ships their goods. Three-quarters of those polled by Citizens Advice said they had no choice of parcel company.\u00a0<\/p>\n That suggests they are missing a trick \u2014 or at least, may be failing to spot a reason why customers go cold. Besides, after a weak Christmas<\/a>, UK retailers need all the help they can get. Giving customers more say over who handles their precious cargo, where such a choice is possible, might deliver an improvement to a flawed market and a fillip to ecommerce, too. <\/p>\n