A new survey conducted by Engage Hub indicates that the firms responsible for handling the delivery of products ordered online are not doing enough to communicate effectively with customers. This is causing an unacceptable number of deliveries to be missed, in spite of a specific time slot being arranged ahead of time.

Almost a quarter of the consumers questioned in the study said that poor communication from delivery firms had resulted in an item not being delivered at some point in the last year, according to Econsultancy.

Complaints were also levelled against firms for failing to alert customers to a change in the delivery time, or not giving them the option of changing to a different time slot after placing the initial order.

Forty nine per cent said that they thought that receiving a specific confirmation of the intended delivery time on the day of delivery itself was the most important aspect of the entire process.

Close to a third said that being updated should the schedule change was top of the list of priorities for them.

In essence, it seems that many delivery companies are simply failing to engage with consumers who place orders via safe shopping online in a way that lives up to expectations. But in many cases, customers have little option when it comes to the firm that fulfils their home delivery needs.

This is also one of the reasons that click and collect services have become so popular in recent years, since shoppers can then take total control of when they receive an item rather than having to hang around at home for a delivery that may or may not even turn up on time. If e-commerce is to continue growing in the UK, then changes to delivery experiences need to be made.