Revealed: The 20 cities with the most amount of delivery complaints

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: Revealed: The 20 cities with the most amount of delivery complaints.

New research has revealed the cities where residents are most likely to face delivery delays – with Glasweigans suffering the most from missing, delayed and damaged parcels across the UK.

Analysis by order management specialist Mintsoft has revealed that residents in Glasgow are most likely to face delivery issues, after analysing 60,000 monthly searches from consumers searching for advice following a delivery complaint.

The research follows the recent rollout of Royal Mail’s Sunday delivery service to over 12,000 online retailers in a bid to dominate the e-commerce market further. It also comes after a new survey revealed that delivery is now one of the biggest deal-breakers for online shoppers in the UK, with 65% of respondents stating that they wouldn’t order from a marketplace if there isn’t flexible and convenient delivery available. 

Mintsoft found that residents in Glasgow, Leeds, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Manchester and Edinburgh rounded out the top five with the most complaints by people seeking help for delayed parcels than anywhere else in the UK. 

Delivery delays and supply chain issues are being exacerbated by the current HGV driver shortage, with 90,000 fewer drivers on the road following Brexit and the pandemic. 

The 20 cities with the most amount of delivery complaints are as follows: 

Rank	City	Index score
1	Glasgow	100
2	Leeds	88
3	Newcastle upon Tyne	84
4	Manchester	81
5	Edinburgh	80
6	Nottingham	77
7	Derby	74
=	Bristol	74
8	Sheffield	61
=	Kingston upon Hull	61
9	Stoke-on-Trent	60
=	Brimingham	60
10	Liverpool	59
11	Southampton	54
12	Belfast	53
=	Coventry	53
=	Bradford	53
13	Leicester	52
14	Greater London	43
15	Cardiff	37

Commenting on the findings, Jordan Westley, ecommerce and order management system (OMS) expert at Mintsoft said: “We’ve conducted this research to highlight the e-commerce businesses which may need to look deeper into their current operations in order to ensure that customers are kept happy and satisfied, and turn a spotlight to their order management and logistics software and partnerships. With the ecommerce sector continuing to boom, it’s so crucial that you’re able to keep the delivery promises you make to customers. 

“Investing in an order management system with pre-built courier and multi-carrier API integration capabilities will allow you to simplify and speed up delivery times and the overall shipping process. Although it might take up more time to research the best courier to use and set up relevant integrations, this will be outweighed by having a delivery service which turns up on time, in condition, and at a price your business (and customers) can afford. 

“With rising fuel costs and a nationwide cost of living hike, offering a competitive delivery pricing will allow retailers to stand out from the crowd - as will the ability to meet customer demands of choice, flexibility and speed.” 

Methodology 

Mintsoft analysed data from Google Keyword Planner for 20 common Google searches related to delayed ecommerce deliveries, including searches for complaint numbers to delivery brands, and searches for advice on how to retrieve a lost parcel. 

Over 63,000 monthly searches were analysed and grouped into location, to determine which city was searching the most for advice on delivery delays. To ensure that the data was not skewed by population size, Mintsoft divided the total number of searches by the population size, according to data by The Geographist, to come up with a per capita score. 

Data accurate as of 30 May 2022.