Half of the returned parcels consist of clothing ordered online
Best, 24 July 2018 - Dutch consumers are returning items they have purchased online en masse. With a return percentage of 9 per cent, the Netherlands is the leader in Europe. The Netherlands is closely followed by the UK, Belgium and Switzerland with 8 per cent. Half of all returned parcels in the Netherlands consist of clothing. This is a considerable increase compared to the previous year, namely 35 per cent in 2016. This creates the impression that, according to the consumer, the option of returning is an essential service when shopping online. This is evident from the E-Shopper Barometer of parcel deliverer DPD. The study was carried out by Kantar TNS among 24,871 e-shoppers from 22 countries, including 1,023 Dutch citizens.
A large proportion of the Dutch people (89%) consider free returns to be important for online shopping, followed by transparent return costs (86%) and the possibility of delivering a parcel to a delivery point (75%). If webshops do not meet these conditions, e-shoppers are more likely to ignore this webshop. When it comes to delivery, e-shoppers also make high demands. They wish to have complete control over the delivery location, day and time. Consumers even want to be able to change their delivery time when the parcel is already on its way. A majority (81%) cited this as the main reason for ordering more frequently from webshops, followed by 77 percent who mentioned evening delivery.
“Alongside the increase in online purchases, the number of returns has also increased massively in recent years. As a parcel deliverer, we are responding to this by facilitating more parcel delivery points. DPD now has more than 32,000 parcel delivery points in 26 countries and this will only increase in the future. These purpose-built locations are the perfect place for consumers to return their parcels. After all, they like to take control of the situation. The E-Shopper Barometer is one of our annual consumer surveys designed to find out exactly what is going on. We support retailers with these insights, but also with efficient services and innovative solutions to align their services with the consumer.”
Eric Dietz, CEO DPD Nederland
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