Summer 2008

How good are the delivery options you offer consumers on your web site? Royal Mail is hoping for the chance to inform retailers by applying a new product called its Delivery Promise Tool.

The web-based system takes the form of an interactive questionnaire hosted by eDigital Research, which evaluates retailers' input and produces a report and recommendations.

The system relies on honest input from the subject company, which needs to differentiate between its aspirations and its current performance when entering its responses.

Among the factors considered during the process are the question of whether the retailer's web site shows delivery options on its home page, what sort of options they are, how returns are described and handled, and how easily consumers can navigate their way round the site and keep track of their selections during their visit.

 

According to Val Walker, Royal Mail's head of multi-channel retail: 'We're trying to get retailers to think what's important to consumers, and see how well their performance measures up.'

The evaluation process is automated, and the findings are based on a wide range of criteria assembled from a number of well-respected analytical and consultancy sources. They are presented in detailed print-out form, with a 'traffic light' system to denote areas that are deemed satisfactory, those that need attention and those that are considered problematic.

'Often the people who build retail web sites are different from the people who deal with customer response,' Val Walker says, 'and don't have the same priorities.'

Walker emphasises that the system is generally supplier-neutral, and 'not in any way a hard sell'. Currently it is available through Royal Mail's 250-strong sales force, but there are hints that it might eventually be offered as a self-service system.