New study: less than a third of shoppers would use drones for online deliveries
A new study has found that only 30% of UK shoppers would be happy to have their online shopping delivered by drones if the service became widely available.
The research by Give as you Live, the shopping website where a percentage of the purchase value is donated to charity, found that 36% of respondents were concerned that people might steal their deliveries. In addition, one in five admitted that they would consider stealing a package themselves when a drone was landing and one in 20 said they would be tempted to break a drone if they noticed it delivering a package.
Confidence in drone deliveries was low with 31% of respondents raising the issue of difficulty with large items and 22% saying they would be concerned about deliveries going to the wrong place.
In contrast, 42% said they believed the biggest benefit would be faster deliveries. In addition, 42% believed drones would help with the delivery to isolated and remote places.
Amazon was the clear favourite when shoppers were asked about which retailers they would like to see using drones.
The top five retailers that respondents would like to see using drones were:
1. Amazon (66%)
2. Argos (22%)
3. Tesco (13%)
4. Boots (10%)
5. Asda (10%)
Greg Hallett, managing director of Give as you Live, said: “It’s clear that people are still very wary of drones delivering their online goods. The main drawback is the security of their purchases and at the moment the majority are planning not to use them despite knowing the benefits of faster and wider spread delivery.”
“This is very much a case of shoppers becoming more comfortable with the technology. As online shopping continues to grow steadily, which we see through our website data, there will continue to be innovations in delivery to deal with the demand.”
