Getting your Christmas shopping done online is a whole lot more convenient than hitting the high street. Why would you battle the masses in the summer heat, or waste time in trailing checkout queues – when you can sit at home with one eye on your device and another on Netflix? It’s modern day multi-tasking at its best.
Painfully long delivery times
But – and it’s a big BUT – online Christmas shopping usually requires a lot of forward planning. This is because of unreliable and lengthy delivery times, which only get worse as we creep closer to the holiday season. In fact, if you’re an experienced online Christmas shopper, you probably already started your mission back in November (yep, it might just be too late already!).
So, if you’re still hoping to shop online this Christmas, we checked out some of Australia’s flagship retail stores to find out your chances of getting those orders in before the big day. And it’s not looking great.
What delivery options are major retailers offering right now?
Here’s what we found looking at delivery options for several major retail outlets across sports, electronics, books, and department stores (all the best stuff). Bad news first, if you’re looking to by a book online from one of Australia’s major book retailers – you’re looking at a delivery window of 1 to 2 weeks. And here’s the best part, they’ll charge you $7 for the privilege! So, books are definitely out.
Next, we checked out a major electronics retailer that can get your order over to you before Christmas (if all goes smoothly) with an expected delivery estimate of mid next week. But it’ll cost you a pricey $10. And we’re cutting it a bit fine at our department stores – we’re looking at 7-day delivery times and another hefty $10 delivery charge. It seems the safest bet this Christmas is sports equipment, with the best delivery service offered by a major sports retailer offering 2 to 5-day delivery – and it’s free!
Inefficient and costly last-mile deliveries
Our take in this – the retail industry (for the most part) is still grappling inefficient last-mile delivery processes while struggling to make them cost-effective for customers. Not to mention the difficulties coping with peaks and troughs in trade. Of course, some do offer express delivery options – we found you could get that book delivered by express courier for a whopping $15 (probably more than the book itself!)
Go People has the answer!
That’s why we’re passionate about what we do here at Go People. Thanks to our on-demand crowdsourced courier model, we give retailers the chance to offer customers a range of delivery options including same-day delivery and even deliveries under 3 hours. Better still, they’re all priced under $5 or $10. We also enable retailers to meet the expectations of those last-minute Christmas shoppers – with over 21,000 registered delivery runners, Go People has no problem guaranteeing the fastest deliveries through those busy periods.
Find out more about Go People’s delivery services here.