Study: Apple, Dell, Nordstrom and Zappos tops in holiday delivery
New York – When it came to fulfilling holiday deliveries, Apple, Dell, Nordstrom and Zappos stood out among other major competitors. According to research from StellaService, all four provided an aggressive guarantee that orders placed by Dec. 23 would be delivered by Christmas and managed to meet that promise in all regions of the U.S.
StellaService placed four orders for 40 of the largest retailers, one to each region – East, Midwest, South and West. All orders were placed on the advertised Christmas cutoff date. If the cutoff date was not stated, StellaService analysts calculated the date based on the delivery estimate for standard shipping or free expedited shipping.
Nine of the 40 retailers missed delivery to at least one region (7% of packages). Those retailers were:
• Best Buy
• Costco
• Crate & Barrel
• J.C. Penney
• Kohl’s
• Macy’s
• Staples
• Toys ‘R Us
• Wayfair
Staples and Toys ‘R Us missed delivery in multiple regions. In the case of Staples, the retailer cancelled an order without notifying the shopper. After the Toys ‘R Us cutoff date passed, the retailer prominently advertised its buy online, pickup in store initiative on its homepage.
StellaService conducted the same study in 2013 with a set of 25 companies. Of the companies tested year-over-year, Staples, Macy’s and Kohl’s missed a delivery both years.
UPS was the preferred carrier (59%) followed by FedEx (34%). Of the 10 delayed packages, eight were shipped UPS and six were ordered to the South region. More packages were shipped expedited (56%) than standard or economy. Fifty-six percent of packages were shipped using an expedited method and 41% using a standard method.
“Retailers did a nice job this year on fulfillment,” said Kevon Hills, StellaService VP of research. “You saw many of these packages leave the warehouse the same day the order was placed, which is the best effort the retailer can make. Everyone seemed to learn from last year’s woes and make the proper improvements.”