Alpkit Home delivery: an open letter to the industry and our customers

© Alpkit

Alpkit Shipping #1

Whilst there is no substitute for a decent bricks and mortar outdoor shop and even for the more boutique shops like the Patagonia Store in Hathersage, the simple truth is that year on year more of you have been buying outdoor stuff over the net. The problem is we have had it easy, up to now there has been a simple way of doing things. Small cheap items got sent in the post, and bigger more expensive items got delivered by a courier.

However over the last two weeks we have seen a dramatic decrease in peoples confidence in the Royal Mail delivering, which seems more than anything to be based on media hype in all but a few regions. This now means the industry has to look hard, to how we get orders to you, how we charge for them and most importantly we have to gain and understanding of what you expect. What I'm suggesting is that companies like ourselves will no longer be able to use Royal Mail, so in order for all your favorite stores to make informed decisions then we need to know what our customers think.

Tough Choice number 1. Do we charge some Scottish people more?

At the moment the Royal Mail provides a unique service as it delivers for a flat fee over the entire UK. So if we deliver a 2 kg Sleeping bag, it costs us £4.56 and we send that to you pretty much next day no matter where you live in the UK. All commercial couriers with no legal obligation of the Universal Delivery Service will charge more for remote geographical regions. These include Scottish Highlands and Islands, Northern Island, Isle of Man. So do we charge more in accordance to where you live or would you prefer for us to even things out.

Tough Choice Number 2. Pay more for small stuff?

At the moment no one comes close to the Royal Mail in being able to send small cheap items cost effectively. In order to sell a small item under £5 it has to be sent Royal Mail. If we sent a small headtorch using a courier then this could add up to £3.50 in extra cost, for nothing more than getting it guaranteed next day. Is this a cost worth paying? The alternative is to have minimum order values which seems like a draconian thing to do in this age of choice.

Tough Choice Number 3. Be patient

In the old days you had to wait up to 28days for delivery, now most people expect things next day. Do we actually need this? Is this just a sad reflection of our impatience or our forgetfulness. Do we actually need the items processed immediately, or do we just remember the day before we go to trek up Kilimanjaro that we need a sleeping bag? Would you prefer to pay less for a slower service, or do we just accept that next day is now the accepted norm?

Tough Choice Number 4. It's a two way street.

The biggest problem with couriers is the moment you nip to get some milk, they come round the corner and post a "we tried to deliver card" through the door. There are no easy answers to this, timed services are expensive, many companies now impose redelivery charges if you're not in, this means that when you place an order the customer has to bear some responsibility to understand how the item will be delivered and make the appropriate plans. We get many calls from people who were not in, and sometimes it is simply their fault, in some cases couriers charge a re-delivery charge so this can cost someone up to £15. Who should pay this, when it goes wrong?

What lies ahead?

Over the last few years there has started to be a few innovative initiates, like Collect + and Pay Point who use local collection points rather a specified address. It's not impossible to see the likes of Tesco and Ocado delivering items other than their own. Is it just that we have to change the way things are. Bigger letter boxes, local outside courier boxes, companies having to except that employees will get items delivered to work. It may even be that we have to buy a transmogrifieing duplicator to receive goods.

For many online retailers this is a time we have to make some tough decisions, worse still, we have to make them pretty quickly. We have been faced with a 25% drop in customers, and thats a genuinely sensitive commercial snippet of information, which hopefully show the gravity of the situation many mail order companies are facing.

I'm hoping this will stimulate some debate that will help your favourite online stores, deliver what you want, when you want it.

Cheers

Nick Smith of Alpkit

See also: UKC Outdoor Industry News: Alpkit Shipping OK Post


For more information Alpkit



6 Nov, 2009
If you miss a post office delivery, the depot for collection is usually close by. Private carriers have fewer depots and they are often in out of the way (ie cheap) locations, which means you have to get it redelivered. I think we do expect too much too quickly and that waiting a week or two is not unreasonable. Providing you have used an appropriate professional delivery service who will make a genuine attempt to deliver the package safely and efficiently - Retailers do have to take responsibility for that. Charge a figure that reflects the cost of delivery, and use proper, reliable delivery agents.
6 Nov, 2009
Whilst not in the Outdoors market, 95% of our business here is done by mail order. We are continuing to use Royal Mail to ship anything below 2kg and courier for everything else. I think the 'problems' with Royal Mail are mostly hype, with some regions having delays in their deliveries. Our customers are generally quite happy for us to keep using Royal Mail, especially when we point out that we could courier their £5 item, but it will cost them an additional £6 to do so! Our experience is that both Courier & Royal Mail are equally trustworthy, and both seem to delivery 98% of items sucessfully. One or two items do go astray over a year, but this happens whoever you use. We have a seperate insurance policy to cover us should valuable items get lost/damaged.
Nick, I'm not clear; why will you no longer be able to use Royal Mail? When last I looked they were still delivering.
6 Nov, 2009
good article with some interesting points however a bit of proofreading might help: "nip to get some milk" might need an "out" in there "companies having to except!!?" plus some missing "?" but like i said very timely and relevant since most of us are regularly buying stuff off the net.
6 Nov, 2009
A choice at checkout? Royal mail and wait x amount of time, or pay extra for next day. In most cases I'd rather have stuff delivered by royal mail, primarily because the depot is round the corner while couriers are invariably miles away. It's not so bad at our new address, but as for our old one we'd have to collect 90% of parcels (it was a different entrance, down a different alley to deliver parcels, so most people just put a slip through the letter box and didn't bother trying. Royal mail were usually the only ones who bothered, but I guess they had to walk up the second alley anyway). Because of the difficulties of collecting from depots other than royal mail we used to seek suppliers that sent by royal mail rather than courier.
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