500 UK adults have been polled to further inform our understand of consumer attitudes to label and label free shipping.
With parcel volume set to rise 27% this year and set to double within the next five years, developing innovative and smart solutions is at the forefront of the logistics sector. But what do consumers really want and is Stamp Free’s end-to-end label free smartphone-enabled technology a viable and relevant option that will be used and adopted by consumers?
We believe that Stamp Free provides an alternative choice. The choice of being able to manage the sending and returning of all parcels with just a smartphone; on-the-go convenience totally label and printer free.
To validate our thinking, in September 2022, Stamp Free commissioned an independent survey polling 500 UK-based adults aged between 18 and 75 to further understand their opinion on labels and their appetite for using smartphone technology to send parcels and returns.
The current offering for sending parcels and returns
Stamp Free’s research showed that across our sample of respondents 65% find going to the Post Office, or similar PUDO, annoying and this didn’t reduce in relation to distance from a PUDO; 64% of respondents living within 5 miles of a PUDO still found going there frustrating.
Across the board, 64% find printing labels for parcels and returns frustrating. The number of households even having access to a printer was fairly low at 58%, exacerbating this frustration further. But having a printer didn’t reduce the frustration, out of those that do have access to a printer, 52% still said that printing shipping labels was an inconvenience.
The problem with labels
A whopping 86% of those surveyed responded that they would rather have no labels at all on parcels and returns with 49% stating that their biggest bugbear when returning a parcel in particular is “all the different forms and labels that come with an item” and 39% stating a frustration being “different online return methods and instructions used by different retailers and courier companies”.
Is sustainability important?
A key part of their thinking is certainly confusion and lack of consistency across carriers and retailers but sustainability also plays a part.
85% of respondents believe that sustainability is important and if over 200bn parcels are being sent every year then reducing the number of labels printed and/or wasted must be a consideration going forward.
Smartphone shipping
In this research, When asked 85% of respondents said that they would like to be able to use their smartphone for sending parcels and this increased to 89% for managing returns from a smartphone. And for those who classed themselves as frequent smartphone users these statistics increased to 93% for both sending parcels and returns.
There wasn’t a huge discrepancy by age of respondents either.
In the 18 – 29 age group 88% would like to use their smartphone for sending parcels and 94% would like to for returns.
For 30 – 44 year olds 92% would like to use their smartphone for sending parcels and 93% for returns.
These stats dropped slightly for the over 45 age bracket but still with 76% wanting to use a smartphone for sending parcels and 80% for managing returns.
The Stamp Free solution
Having viewed an overview video of our technology the response to it was overwhelmingly positive with 86% of all respondents saying they would definitely use it and want it for sending parcels and for managing returns.
With this in mind, Stamp Free is continuing to push ahead collaboratively with carriers and postal companies across the world to trial and subsequently roll out our game-changing and in-demand technology.
To find out more, Stamp Free will be attending Parcel+Post Expo, 18-20 October, in the Start Up Innovation Zone and Stamp Free’s Managing Director Hugh Craigie Halkett will be speaking as part of the Innovative Solutions for the Last Mile on the topic of “What’s wrong with the humble parcel label?”
