News

IMRG: Home Delivery Breakthrough with IDIS DM by MetaPack

12 November 2007

IMRG (Interactive Media In Retail Group), the e-retail industry body, today announces a major innovation in home delivery for internet shopping. Its new 'IDIS Delivery Manager'* (IDIS DM) enables e-retailers of all sizes to offer their customers a variety of delivery options from multiple carriers and services.

Whether the e-retailer is shipping 20 or 20,000 parcels a day, this new low-cost solution gives them a simple, automated tool-set with which to select, price, present and manage a range of delivery options. IDIS DM also handles the back-end operations, out-bound communications and status reporting, freeing the retailer to focus on running their online shop.

James Roper, IMRG's CEO said: "This is a crucial breakthrough in home delivery management that we believe will significantly raise the standards of e-retail fulfilment across the entire industry. Internet shopping brings consumers great convenience, choice and competitive prices, as its rapid growth indicates, but all too often poor delivery lets the whole thing down. The answer is more choice and better communication - more choice, so that the shopper can choose the optimum delivery service for them, and better communication, so that everybody in the delivery chain knows what is going on and can avoid problems. IDIS Delivery Manager gives you both, and will save everybody a lot of time, cost and hassle."

Nick Robertson, CEO and founder of ASOS, the leading online fashion store and one of the many top retailers supporting the IDIS DM initiative, commented: "Even the best shopping experience can be totally negated by a bad delivery experience. With the IDIS Delivery Manager, our delivery options will be significantly better."

Some 1.2 billion deliveries will be made in the UK in 2008 as a result of online shopping. If home delivery performance were to remain unimproved from that recorded in 2007, almost £1.5 billion of direct costs would be wasted in the UK in 2008 because of largely avoidable home delivery inefficiencies and failures. Applying the results to the wider market, IMRG estimates that £3 billion per annum of benefit is currently available by resolving delivery inefficiencies.

IMRG is committed to accelerating the improvement of home shopping delivery until the e-retail industry achieves service fit for the internet age. In June 2004 it formed the IMRG Delivery Forum, which is setting out a long-term strategic vision for home delivery to provide the basis for political, business and consumer buy in. At the heart of this work is the IDIS Charter (below).

IDIS (Internet Delivery Is Safe - www.imrg.org/IDIS ) is a subset and extension of ISIS (Internet Shopping Is Safe - www.imrg.org/ISIS), the e-retail industry trust scheme that has 1,300 accredited retailers.

*'IDIS Delivery Manager by MetaPack' is a low-cost, on-demand multi-carrier delivery management solution that IMRG commissioned for its IDIS-accredited retailers. MetaPack provides delivery management solutions for clients including John Lewis, Dixons, B&Q and Comet. Now the same functionality is available for all IDIS-accredited retailers shipping any number of parcels a day at an easily affordable transactional price. The new system can be set up in a day, is all web based, requires no integration and can provide access to all of the UK's B2C (business to consumer) carriers. It provides delivery options at point of order, automatic carrier allocation, an end to manual data entry, label printing and manifesting, and a full suite of customer service screens. There is a £100+VAT one-time set-up fee, and a pay-as-you-go charge that is directly related to the number of parcels despatched. Retailers can demo the system and apply for a trial at: http://www.metapack.com

Carriers that are already integrated into IDIS DM include ROYAL MAIL, PARCELFORCE, HOME DELIVERY NETWORK, ANC, BUSINESS POST, DHL, GEOPOST UK, LYNX (A UPS COMPANY), and PARCELNET. IMRG aims to make all significant delivery services that exist or may emerge available on IDIS DM as soon as possible.

IDIS DELIVERY CHARTER

As an online shopper with an IDIS-accredited retailer, you have the right to:

    * Clear delivery information before you place your order;
    * Convenient and reliable delivery service;
    * Notification of any delivery limitations / conditions;
    * Charges that are complete and simple to understand;
    * Access to information on your order progress / history;
    * Delivery within the agreed time frame;
    * Helpful support with failed / late / attempted deliveries;
    * Your goods arriving in good condition;
    * A clear returns process, with any limitations / conditions notified prior to purchase.

THE IDIS (INTERNET DELIVERY IS SAFE) PROGRAMME: www.imrg.org/IDIS

IDIS Strategic Vision: Enabling online shoppers to make informed delivery choices through transparency of options, limitations, benefits and their associated costs.

IDIS undertakes research to clarify the business case for investment in internet shopping delivery, then publishes the results.

IDIS provides an online interactive cost-benefit model for retailers that helps them understand just how critically important effective delivery service is for them: www.metapack.co.uk/services/survey.html

IDIS provides an evolving Online Shopper Delivery Charter that is backed up by the industry trust scheme, ISIS, so consumers know what they can expect from good e-retailers and have recourse to help if things go wrong: www.imrg.org/IDIS

IDIS also provides a solutions matrix detailing all of the transporters and co-suppliers together with their options to help retailers find business partners who can best help them achieve great results: www.fulfilmentguide.com/IMRG

E-retailers who strive hard to provide excellent fulfilment services are invited to promote the fact by becoming IDIS-accredited and displaying the IDIS logo; more than 300 retailers have already joined the IDIS scheme.

BACKGROUND

Home delivery needs major improvement that can only be achieved through collective effort by all stakeholders: CONSUMERS, RETAILERS and CARRIERS.

Half of the UK population now shops online to save time and money, and because the internet is where the largest range of goods can be found. Internet shopping has grown 4,000% during the past seven years, and is expected to double again by 2012, by which time it will account for 25% of all retail sales.

The delivery experience is key to the success of online shopping, and the fact that UK consumers are spending more than £4 billion per month on the internet shows that many people are generally satisfied with the service.

However, some internet retailers' services are far better than others. The best give shoppers detailed information and greater choice about how and when they receive their orders, which can be critical for the 50% of households that are unoccupied during normal working hours, and for those sending goods that must arrive by a specific time, such as Christmas.

When all of the stakeholders involved - the shopper, the retailer and the carrier - understand their responsibilities and meet them correctly, internet deliveries work well. But when a delivery does go wrong, it can cause considerable stress, inconvenience and cost for all concerned.

To better understand what those costs are and how they can be ameliorated, the IDIS Programme is researching the potential cost-benefit impacts on the key stakeholders. Several strands of research have been undertaken already, the findings of which form the basis of the VALUING HOME DELIVERY REPORT, which can be downloaded free-of-charge here: www.imrg.org/IDIS.

Internet shopping places high and growing demand on the home delivery industry in terms of both the type and volume of service its consumers need. The quality of delivery available to consumers varies considerably in both choice and consistency, and the cost of delivery failure is high - both up and down the supply chain - impacting all stakeholders.

To accelerate progress, the IMRG Delivery forum set up the IDIS (Internet Delivery Is Safe) Programme to enable internet retailers and home delivery transporters to actively work together to assess and meet demand by scoping, facilitating, measuring, managing and promoting improvements in home delivery.

ABOUT IMRG:
IMRG (Interactive Media in Retail Group) is the industry body for global e-retail. Formed in 1990, IMRG is setting and maintaining pragmatic and robust e-retail Standards to enable fast-track industry growth, and facilitates its community of members with practical help, information, tools, guidance and networking. Consumers can be confident when dealing with IMRG Members because all have committed to operate using methods that are Honest, Decent, Legal, Truthful and Fair, and have undertaken to not bring the industry into disrepute. The strength of IMRG is the collective and co-operative power of its members in 20 countries. IMRG is the business.

MEDIA ENQUIRIES:
James Roper, CEO, IMRG - Mobile: +44(0) 780 222 5 888
IMRG (Interactive Media in Retail Group) - www.imrg.org/
88 Kingsway, London WC2B 6AA UK
Tel: +44(0) 7000 46 46 74 (07000 Go IMRG)
Fax: +44(0) 7000 39 46 74 (07000 Fx IMRG)
E-mail: delivery@imrg.org