Study: What retailer leads in holiday shipping speed?

Only one retailer has averaged online deliveries in one day so far this holiday season.



According to a Kurt Salmon study of online orders from 62 retailers across a broad range of categories, including brick-and-mortar and online-only retailers, Zappos kicked delivery into a higher gear than any other analyzed retailer with an average of delivery in one day.



The top 10 performers averaged 2.8 days for a delivery, identical to Kurt Salmon’s 2014 findings. Lowe’s, Barneys and Burberry were the only other top performers to beat the average with two-day delivery. REI, Saks, Amazon.com and Under Armour averaged three days, while Bloomingdale’s took an average of four days to fulfill online deliveries.



However, the average order-to-delivery time across all 62 retailers studied was 6.9 days. This was 20% slower than the average of all retailers surveyed in the prior year’s study.



Almost all (90%) of retailers offered a way for customers to get free shipping, up dramatically from 15% from 2014. And 64% of retailers offered free shipping on everything, up nearly 50% from 2014. Plus, this year, 35% more retailers offered buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS) or reserve-in-store opportunities. Additionally, many retailers who offered these services in a few stores last year have expanded them to more, if not all, of their stores.



While 35% more retailers are offering BOPIS, and many retailers who offered it in 2014 have expanded the service, the study found that many of them have room to improve.



The top BOPIS performers, Target, Macy’s and Lowe’s, provided good communication after the purchase, had the order ready in less than two hours and made the pickup experience quick and easy. Most importantly, the experience was equally painless across all of the chain’s tested stores.



Overall, 40% of BOPIS transactions were error-free, compared to 91% of delivered orders in the study and 98% of delivered orders during the rest of the year, revealing a major service gap.



Improved execution enabled 80% of retailers to complete orders within two weeks of Cyber Monday, up from 66% in 2014, with 9% fewer cancelled orders. However, overall delivery time has increased 21% from 2014.