Study: Retailers should follow ‘five-day rule’ with deliveries

San Luis Obispo, Calif. – Retailers who want to keep their customers happy and ensure positive word-of-mouth need to follow the “five-day rule” when fulfilling deliveries.



According to a new study of 13,000 consumers from cloud-based distributed order management solution provider Shopatron, 87% of orders delivered by a retailer or brand in five days or less resulted in the customer becoming a “promoter.”



As a promoter, a customer is more likely to be a repeat buyer, brand evangelist, and refer more shoppers via word of mouth marketing. On the other hand, the analysis found the percentage of promoters dropped to 66% if an order was delivered in more than five days.



To better understand the causes of detraction, Shopatron analyzed more than 28,000 customer satisfaction results and found that shipments fulfilled directly by the brand were on average significantly slower and shipped from further distances than shipments fulfilled by a retail partner.