With a smooth and relatively untroubled Black Friday for ecommerce businesses, UK delivery management technology company Metapack has said that many of the lessons taught in Black Friday 2014 have been learned by UK businesses this year.
Metapack’s data suggested that 92% of deliveries were made on time on Cyber Monday, compared to 73% the same day last year. Though this means that there were millions of parcels that didn’t arrive on time, a statement from Metapack suggested that the delayed or undelivered rate did not fall far short of usual deliveries. The statement from the company said, “Given that on time deliveries for the previous six months averaged 93%, all evidence would suggest that the industry came together to ensure that a high quality of service was maintained throughout.”
Industry insiders have warned in the run up to the large scale flash sales day, that businesses could suffer long term from poor preparation for the event and that proper preparation could make or break their business. CEO of Metapack said, “Thanks to the depth of preparation made by both retailers and carriers, the sharing of forecasts, and the adoption of multi-carrier contracts to cover the period, retailers were able to manage capacity and worked in tandem with carriers to clear orders.”
The data from Metapack suggested that traffic was 45% higher than on Black Friday 2014, and most customers chose normal delivery routes, with only 22% choosing next day delivery. With good forecasts sent to carriers and strong preparation for the event, there has been minimal issues as there were seen in 2014. Wall added, “As a result, the quality of service for customers was maintained throughout, with carriers even providing additional services – including Sunday collections – to manage the increase in volumes and enable retailers to keep their delivery promises.”