Finding out just how soon your online order can be delivered is far from straightforward. Labyrinthine websites and countless caveats. Required memberships and postcode dependencies. Eligibility for swiftness based on size, weight and whatever else. All of which makes UK e-commerce’s latest major entrant Joybuy’s delivery promise even more appealing.
It’s straightforward, and the name is catchy: Double 11. That is, order by 11am, get it by 11pm.
It’s so appealing and clear, the full category e-commerce site and app owned by China’s biggest retailer by revenue, JD.com – which launched on Monday – has opted to display the promise in metres-high letters on the huge digital advertising screen at Piccadilly Circus.
Same day is not unique in the market, of course, but it’s far from standard in non-food. Of the 55 non-grocery retailers in March’s Digital Capability Index (DCI) by Retail Week and The Grocer only five offered same-day delivery, the majority at best within “one to two days”.
And same day comes at a not insignificant cost to the consumer. Argos charges £7.95 for same-day (order by 1pm, delivery by 9pm) delivery of ‘small things’ orders. ‘Big things’ – like appliances – cannot be delivered so soon. And next-day delivery of ‘big things’ costs £29.95.
A mixed delivery bag
In grocery – rapid services aside – the picture is mixed and not always clear. In January, Tesco bought forward the time of the earliest slots available for same-day delivery. Shoppers booking a slot (from around 400 larger stores) before 8.45am can now select home delivery slots from 1pm. Previously, the soonest same-day home delivery slot was 7pm. Tesco described it as a “market-leading move for a UK supermarket”.
Ocado offers same-day ‘Express It’ slots. Iceland has same-day delivery options for around £6. Sainsbury’s allows for orders made before midday to arrive from 5pm for a variable fee if over £40 (and £9 otherwise). Asda’s same-day option has fees starting from £8.50.
But all involve booking a slot, so are subject to availability and cannot be comfortably relied upon. In many cases, delivery passes or subscriptions are required too.
Amazon’s same-day delivery offer is even less straightforward. It’s available on “millions” of eligible products (they’re labelled as such on its site) that are dispatched directly by Amazon. It costs £5.99 or is free if a customer is an Amazon Prime member and they’re ordering more than £20 worth of goods. It only covers selected postcodes.
Nevertheless, Amazon is “introducing perishable groceries alongside millions of everyday essentials and other products on Amazon.co.uk with same-day delivery” this year, it says.
“We know that when customers are shopping for grocery items, they typically want them fast,” it said in September. “That’s why we’ve invested heavily in delivering items at record speeds.”
But Joybuy has launched with a clear and catchy delivery proposition. The full explanation of it runs to 112 words on its website. The same on Amazon.co.uk is 446 words long.
Short, sweet and simple
Double 11 covers more than 17 million people – some 4.5 million households – today, including those in Greater London, Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham, Oxford and Cambridge. But it will be rolled out to more towns and cities in the coming months. Shoppers outside the Double 11 delivery zones can opt for next-day or standard delivery, which is free on orders over £29 and a flat £3.99 otherwise. Again, blisteringly straightforward.
“Unlike other online retailers, Joybuy does not charge extra ‘speed fees’ to receive orders sooner,” a spokesman says.
Consumers rate swift delivery. According to the DCI, 37% of consumers said it was among the most important factors when shopping online. Joybuy is responding to that demand with a memorable promise.
Further – thanks to its fully-owned logistics arm JoyExpress, which launched in the UK in February – product handover is more like a supermarket delivery than an Evri or Amazon Flex drop-off.
Unlike orders made on rivals such as Amazon – which uses a pool of self-employed drivers to courier packages to customers’ doors – JoyExpress will deliver in branded uniforms and vehicles.
“It’s part of our customer centricity: handing that delivery over to the customer, ensuring all of our touchpoints, including that customer service afterwards, is controlled by us,” Joybuy UK’s country manager and MD Matthew Nobbs told The Grocer.
The offering “raises the bar” for UK e-commerce, he said. And he’s not wrong.
“Joybuy is not just a market entry. It is a system export of China’s most advanced retail infrastructure into Europe,” says investor and retail expert Dominique Pierre Locher.
“The real competition is no longer assortment. It is execution.”
With Double 11, the days of sluggish, expensive, arms-length online retail deliveries are surely numbered.
No comments yet