According to Shutl, a delivery service backed by Ebay, traditional home delivery services could be costing the UK economy close to £200 million per annum.
Shutl surveyed over 2,000 UK consumers and their online shopping habits and discovered that five percent of respondents have called in sick in order to wait in for a delivery to their home. 25 percent of respondents also reported that their bosses were not happy to receive deliveries at their place of work.
Incredibly, three percent of those surveyed said they had left a window or door unlocked to ensure that their online purchase could be delivered successfully.
Jason Tavaria, head of direct at Shutl, told retail-systems.com that:
“The research is a real eye opener when it comes to the lengths that people are prepared to go to to avoid getting that ‘missed delivery’ slip through the door.”
With reports published by IMRG in conjunction with Metapack suggesting that retailers are expecting an extremely strong final quarter of 2015 in terms of online deliveries and events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday putting increased pressure on home deliveries, the estimated £200 million lost per year could be even higher in the coming years.