UK fashion brands offering flexible services to boost sales: Report

The study titled ‘Operations Experience 2021: How Does UK Retail Measure Up?’ by ParcelLab analysed the top 150 retailers of the UK and witnessed some improvements in the operations experience of the UK’s top retailers compared to studies from previous years.

Whilst express shipping is pretty standard (91 per cent offer this), 52 per cent retailers offer guaranteed weekend delivery and 19 per cent advertise timeslot delivery. The most popular number of alternative delivery options is three and 17 per cent of the retailers offer a delivery pass/subscription. About 19 per cent of the retailers have suspended some delivery options due to the impact of the pandemic, the report said.

Deferred payment options have gained popularity in recent years as 41 per cent of the retailers now offer this as an alternative payment method. The report noted that 61 of the 150 retailers have partnered with popular payment providers to offer this method of payment to their customers.

“Fashion has faced a double whammy over the course of the pandemic; lockdown not only took away the social occasions that drive demand, but it shuttered stores forcing what traditionally is an in-person buying journey to go 100 per cent digital, putting extra pressure on e-commerce channels as the sole route to market. This meant retailers had to re-evaluate how they could improve CX at each stage of the path to purchase,” said Tobias Buxhoidt, founder and CEO of ParcelLab.

“Fashion is already seeing the green shoots of recovery, with like-for-like sales up 57 per cent in March as consumers invested in post-lockdown outfits,” he concluded.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)