Becoming a standard Christmas Story, retailers that are struggling to fulfil orders before xmas. Marks and Sparks is in the news today as being quoted as saying it will take 10 days for standard delivery versus it's normal 5 days. Apparently blackfriday promotions are part of the blame.
If I remember rightly, last year was full of stories of retailers not being able to deliver to xmas deadlines, and as we all shop online, no doubt things will get worse.
But isn't it down to good organisation, especially for the big boys. Drop shippers are in the hands of their suppliers, but those with warehouses know how much stock they have, and how long it will take to get delivered. You can blame customers for leaving things too late, but people are getting savvy waiting for prices to drop and grabbing bargains.
If a website says a product can be delivered in time for xmas, is it a customer service nightmare and damage limitation exercise if it turns out it actually can't? If it happens on a large scale, I wonder if it could actually impact or damage future sales?
Does anyone offer or promise delivery deadlines? If so, what do you do if you can't meet them? Do you compensate to try and preserve a future customer or for reputation management, or is it a case of tough and not my problem?
