The state of Operations Experience in the UK for online retail 2021

An analysis of the checkout, shipping, delivery and returns processes of the UK’s top 150 retailers.

Key findings

How does your post-sales experience measure up against brands such as ASOS, Look Fantastic and Zara?

Get an in-depth analysis of the post-sales experiences provided by UK retailers to establish best practices, common mistakes, and opportunities to outperform competitors.

Analysis of the checkout, shipping, delivery and returns processes of the UK’s top 150 retailers has revealed some shocking insights that brands can learn from:

Free shipping comes with barriers.

Just 17% of retailers offer free delivery with no restrictions. A further 62% offer it with a minimum order value but this can be up to £200 for some retailers. When charged, average delivery cost is £3.92

Customers are left in the dark during delivery.

87% of retailers stop communicating with their customers after checkout. This means that the majority of UK consumers are left hoping the carrier will communicate with them about their order. For 17% of the orders this didn’t happen.

Returns options are lacking

43% of the retailers offer 3 or more returns options. Returns flexibility is vital for customer satisfaction: the more offered, the better. One customer’s convenient drop-off will be different to another’s, so we would expect more retailers to offer 3 or more.