Consumers can beat fuel costs by shopping online

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: Consumers can beat fuel costs by shopping online.

Rising fuel costs have led to one in four people in the UK to opt for online shopping rather than drive their cars. The finding comes from a survey of over 2,000 adults conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Trimble, a leading field service solutions provider.

The survey shows that while, overall, around 23% of people already preferred to do their shopping online, spiraling petrol and diesel prices have driven nearly a quarter of people who weren't previously shopping online to do so.

That means great news for online retailers. To prepare for the potential increase in business, UK retailers will need to consider modern consumers' expectations when it comes to service delivery.

More than half the survey's respondents (52.4%) said delivery timeslots given by firms were too long and seven out of ten people (73.2%) said that they would be put off ordering from those offering day-long timeslots for deliveries.

"With Christmas just around the corner, and more people than ever before doing their shopping online, delivery schedules and customer service expectations are key for UK retailers," said Nick Mitchell, VP Sales, for Trimble Field Service.

"People are deterred from ordering products from those companies that can't provide a specific time for the delivery or advise of delivery times en-route and, increasingly, that's driving consumer decisions as to who they buy from."

To support businesses with delivery fleets, Trimble provides a range of solutions that help schedule work more efficiently and then manage the schedule in real time, making it easier for organisations to provide a higher level of service to as many customers as possible.

Trimble GeoManager Work Management enables companies to manage their teams and manage capacity ahead of time, then monitor their progress against the actual plan for the day and resolve complications such as route overruns, changes to appointment times and emergency trips.