Incorrect delivery addresses cost online UK businesses over
£146m every year, according to a study released by
Worcester-based IT firm Postcode Anywhere this week.
The Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) and Postcode
Anywhere report found that every year 5.8 million items ordered
online fail to deliver first time because of an error in the
address.
Postcode Anywhere MD Guy Mucklow said: "It's shocking that in
this day and age we still can't seem to fill out our addresses
accurately. But the problem doesn't lie with the customer: more
often it's a result of poorly-put-together online forms and
ill-conceived data capture.
"E-commerce businesses are shooting themselves in the foot if
they take shortcuts with their address forms. According to our
results, every delivery that fails due to an incorrect address
costs an average £25.50 to put right, through refunds,
redeliveries and wasted man-hours.
"Averaged out, current levels of delivery inefficiency add 70p
to the cost of every single parcel dispatched in the UK, and 75p
for every delivery.
"Clearly, there is a strong argument for e-tailers to take more
care in how they collect customer information. It even affects
customer service levels: as consumers, we've probably all
experienced the frustrating scenario of being forced to select a US
state from a drop-down box, or abbreviate words because they won't
fit in the fields.
"While we've learnt missed delivery levels are high, it also
seems likely that even more customers will never go through with
the order in the first place if they meet with a particularly
troublesome form.
"Solutions do exist which make the purchase process quicker for
customers, and ensure addresses are captured accurately and easily.
In fact, by installing technology that auto-fills an address from a
UK postcode - such as that available from Postcode Anywhere -
e-commerce vendors can sidestep these problems altogether.
"Postcodes collected from online forms cannot be underestimated
- they're even useful for delivery drivers' sat-navs.
"We asked our customers, and two thirds of them said they'd
noticed a reduction in the number of items lost in the post after
implementing address auto-fill technology. Over 70% agreed it
reduced shopping cart abandonments.
"But as this study shows, although many of the big names in
e-commerce are wise to the benefits of address auto-fill and
validation, a significant percentage of vendors can't see what
they're missing."
The research made findings representing more than 12 million
online consumers, 3.5 million active online shoppers and almost 800
million home deliveries.