NEW YORK, NY – NRF Convention, Booth #2246 – January 18, 2016 – Temando, a leading shipping and fulfilment software platform for commerce, today announced United States retailer and consumer survey data from its 2016 State of Shipping In Commerce report. The survey polled 214 micro, small, mid-sized and enterprise retailers and over 1,000 consumers about a range of shipping-related challenges they face.¹ The survey highlights revenue, customer loyalty, and efficiency opportunities for US retailers to close the gap between what shipping options they offer and what consumers are demanding. The full report from the survey can be downloaded here: http://temando.com/research-2016.

Importance of Multiple Shipping Options

While 71 percent of all retailers offer more than one shipping option at checkout, the survey revealed that many retailers do not offer the range of shipping options that consumers now expect. The vast majority of consumers (77 percent) polled have used or would like to use guaranteed weekend or afterhours shipping, and 42 percent are willing to pay a premium for this shipping option. But only 34 percent of all retailers surveyed offer this shipping option.

Consumers (61 percent) also want 1 – 3 hour shipping, and 31 percent are willing to pay a premium for it. But only 20 percent of all retailers surveyed offer this option, including just 19 percent of enterprise retailers. Consumers (80 percent) want same day shipping, and 55 percent are willing to pay a premium for it. But 47 percent of all retailers do not offer same day shipping.

Consumers (82 percent) also want to collect shipments from stores, and 37 percent are willing to pay a premium for it. But 50 percent of all retailers do not offer this option. Consumers (76 percent) also want a specified time slot for delivery, and 37 percent are willing to pay a premium for it. But only 43 percent of all retailers offer this option.

All retailers surveyed reported that increasing the number of shipping options at checkout helps increase sales (86 percent of total respondents), reduce cart abandonment (75 percent), meet customer expectations (86 percent), meet shipping deadlines (84 percent), and ship to a wider geographical area (78 percent).

Lack of Total Automation

A relatively small percentage of retailers reported having a totally automated process for booking couriers (28 percent), warehouse management (25 percent), and product returns (17 percent). Some retailers are still manually booking couriers (22 percent), managing warehouse operations (23 percent) and handling product returns (33 percent).

In terms of shipping difficulties, enterprise retailers cited meeting customer expectations (38 percent) and inefficient supply chain (31 percent) as their top concerns.² Small and micro retailers cited high courier rates (37 percent each) as their top concern (versus 13 percent for enterprise retailers). Shipping costs for smaller retailers, who deal with tighter margins and less volume, have a greater effect on their bottom line than larger retailers.

Additional survey findings include:

- Negative Shipping Experiences -- When asked how their businesses are affected when a shipment is lost, delayed or arrives damaged, 41 percent of all retailers said their brand image is negatively impacted. Reduced customer loyalty (39 percent), increased cost of returns (36 percent), and customer service calls (28 percent) were also key areas that retailers cited were affected by negative shipping experiences.

- Delivery speed – The majority (60 percent) of mid-sized retailers surveyed can ship orders in less than four hours, while almost half (49 percent) of micro retailers can ship an online order in under one hour. Meanwhile, 36 percent of enterprise retailers take 24 – 48 hours to ship an order.

- Delivery by Drones – Nearly one third (33 percent) of all retailers reported a willingness to use drones to deliver their packages, while almost half (51 percent) of consumers are willing to accept a drone delivery.

“Shipping and fulfilment are very complex and important processes that are traditionally viewed as a cost center for many businesses,” said Carl Hartmann, CEO and co-founder of Temando. “But with smart investments in software and hardware technology, especially the automation of multiple shipping options, many large and small retailers can transform shipping and fulfilment into a bonafide sales tool, a competitive advantage, and a key way to build customer loyalty.”

Methodology

The Temando survey was conducted online by Research Now and surveyed over 200 retailers in each of four countries, the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and France. The retailers surveyed all have an understanding of the eCommerce and fulfilment aspects of their businesses (manager or director-level and higher), ship more than five deliveries per week, operate in all main retail categories (e.g., electronics, clothing, furniture, toys, home & garden, books, etc.) except for grocery-related services, and have an online retail revenue greater than one percent of their total retail revenue. The survey was conducted in October 2015.

About Temando

Temando (“I send you” in Spanish) is a global technology company that exists to connect the world’s logistical resources into a single intelligent software platform and to make commerce universally accessible to everybody. The company’s solutions give merchants the power to move goods from anywhere they are to wherever they need to be, no matter how they need to get there. Temando provides merchants with access to rates and services from multiple couriers in one platform, creating amazing delivery experiences for their customers. The company has over 50,000 registered retailers and merchants and is one of the fastest growing tech companies in the APAC region, as recognized in the Asia Pacific Deloitte Technology Fast 500. Temando is a Neopost Shipping Partner Company, the Neopost division dedicated to developing and providing parcel shipping and tracking solutions for Commerce and Logistics. Headquartered in Australia, Temando has offices in Brisbane, Sydney, San Francisco, London, Paris and Manila. For more information, please visit temando.com and shipping.neopost.com.

About Research Now

Research Now is an independent, single source for international online research across Europe, the Middle East, the Americas and Asia-Pacific. The company, which is ISO 20252 accredited, has been providing proprietary, high-quality online research panel samples since 2001. Research Now’s panels are used for market research purposes only and comply with or exceed all applicable industry standards published by ESOMAR, the MRS, the AMSRS (Australia). Research Now is comprised of multi-lingual, online research experts working with its clients across 22 offices worldwide. For more information, please visit http://www.researchnow.com/.

Footnotes

1 Enterprise retailers ship more than 20,000 deliveries per week. Mid-sized retailers ship 101 - 20,000 deliveries per week. Small retailers ship 21 - 100 deliveries per week. Micro retailers ship less than 20 deliveries per week.

2 Customer expectations consist of various factors, including overall quality of service, shipping options, shipping costs, returns, tracking and notifications (email and SMS).