21 November 2006
Online shoppers could face empty stockings this Christmas
With just four weeks to go until Christmas, thousands of online shoppers could be left without presents for friends and family due to failed deliveries of Internet shopping, according to parcel-minding service My Parcel.
Up to a fifth of all goods ordered online for delivery to residential addresses in London cannot be delivered first time as customers are not at home or can't arrange to be there at the right time, according to research published in the International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management.
Last year customers were faced with the task of locating courier depots, some of which are located on isolated industrial estates, to collect their deliveries. And some of them simply ran out of time to collect their packages, with two per cent of online purchases, 25,000 parcels a day, simply never reaching shoppers and having to be returned to the retailer.
With shoppers set to spend £7bn online in the run up to this Christmas, 40 per more than last year, MyParcel is urging consumers to plan now for their deliveries.
Hugo Rose, managing director of MyParcel said: "Goods bought online tend to be delivered during office hours when more than 50 per cent of homes are unoccupied. It's an inconvenient system for anyone who works. To avoid disappointment this Christmas, shoppers need to start thinking now about making arrangements for receiving their orders.
"It is not always possible to rely on neighbours to take in parcels and at this time of the year it is inviting trouble to leave valuable deliveries unattended. We are seeing more and more consumers looking for alternative delivery arrangements such as having their parcels sent to local safe drop-off points for collection at their convenience."
MyParcel offers customers a solution to the hassle of having to wait in for online shopping deliveries. Customers choose to have their goods delivered to a MyParcel depot and receive an email when they arrive. The goods remain in safe keeping until it is convenient for the customer to collect them. The service is available for Ebay as well as store purchases.
MyParcel depots are located at Battersea, Pentonville Road, Whitechapel, Alexandra Palace and Wandsworth. The company plans to expand to 25 other sites across London early next year and then to other UK cities.
ends
For further information contact:
MyParcel
www.myparcel.co.uk
Hugo Rose or Fiona Wray
Tel: 01206 575600
Aquila Public Relations
www.aquila-financial.com
Peter Reilly/ Vivienne Macey
Tel: 020 7 202 2600
Notes to editors
About MyParcel
MyParcel is an innovative, safe and secure solution to the problem of missed deliveries. Customers choose to have their packages delivered to a MyParcel depot where they are signed for and safely stored until the customer can physically collect them at their convenience. MyParcel depots are open seven days a week and offer car parking, making collection of even the bulkiest of items quick and easy.
The company was founded in 2004 by Hugo Rose, formerly sales director for UK wine merchant Lay & Wheeler.
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