Survey: Holiday shipping failed to meet consumer expectations

Many consumers reported various issues preventing their online orders from being fulfilled satisfactorily during the 2020 holiday season.

According to a new survey of U.S. consumers from supply chain technology provider Voxware, 56% of respondents reported that gifts they purchased online arrived later than the date that was promised at the time of purchase. Half of those who reported getting late gifts said more than 25% of purchased items were delayed. 

Although 54% of respondents who had gift delivery delays said it was extremely important that retailers continuously communicate the status of their delayed orders and another 42% said it was important, 42% of these consumers said retailers did not provide enough information about delayed items. 

In addition, 45% said information for tracking packages was unclear or not provided, 41% said that customer service was unavailable or unable to address questions or concerns, and 37% said that packages delivered did not include information for making a return.

Other fulfillment issues affecting large percentages of online holiday shoppers included the inability to ship items from a single order to multiple locations (41%) and lack of gifting options such as gift wrap or gift receipts (39%). 

The survey also indicates retailers can lose sales due to online fulfillment issues. More than half (56%) of respondents reported being unable to purchase gifts they were considering because they were not available or would not arrive in time for the holidays. Almost three-quarters (73%) said retailers that met or exceeded their holiday fulfillment expectations will get more business from them in the future, while 53% will never place another order with certain retailers that mishandled their order fulfillment.

Voxware executed a survey of U.S. residents 18 and older Dec. 28-30, 2020, using Qualtrics.