A study by US analysts Retail Systems Research has suggested that transparency is one of the most important factors in staying on good form with customers.

The report, Home Delivery: Retailers’ Brave New World, contains “analysis of the business drivers, opportunities, and organizational constraints surrounding retailers’ home delivery strategies. It also offers baseline recommendations for navigating consumers’ unrealistic expectations around the cost and speed of home delivery.”

The report that was sponsored by Descartes suggested to retailers that are looking to improve their home delivery performance, “The more consumers feel engaged in the process, the more comfortable they will be in ordering from you.”

The report said that giving detail throughout the delivery process will boost customers’ confidence in your processes. It suggested, “Pre-delivery notifications are an excellent start, but any way that retailers can find to use delivery-related information to improve the home delivery experience will ultimately pay off in the end, whether that is in increasing confidence around narrow delivery windows, adding new delivery-related services, or heading off customer service calls before a consumer ever knows something has gone awry.”

The report, that was published in November, covers a number of elements of the home delivery process including free delivery and the issues around expedited delivery as well. Overall it concluded that while customers are increasingly getting used to home delivery as e-commerce matures, they still need to be reassured throughout the process that their goods are on their way and will be delivered by a certain time. In the UK, a 93% on time delivery rate is seen to be ‘good’, meaning millions of parcels don’t reach the customer on time, so such reassurances if accurate could well offset the ire of the customer when their goods haven’t arrived on time.