Spring 2010

The new standard that aims to change the rules

The IDIS Gold Standard for home delivery performance, formally announced by IMRG in late April, promises to be a game-changing development in the unfolding story of home shopping delivery.

Retailers who apply successfully for accreditation will in effect be telling consumers: 'There is a very high probability that if you order anything from us and choose the optimal delivery option, it will be delivered to you first time, every time.'

However, this does not mean the standard is only about ultimate delivery success. In fact it addresses all the stages of buying a product online, from web browsing and ordering through to taking delivery and returns. For each stage, a range of best practice statements has been drawn up by IMRG, and retailers are assessed on the success with which they measure up to these practices.

 

Unlike the existing nine-point IDIS Charter on home delivery performance, which is based on a self-certification process, the new standard requires retailers to submit an application indicating their performance levels in 16 key aspects of order-taking and fulfilment. The answers are subjected to detailed scrutiny before accreditation is granted.

The information is gathered quickly via a set of questions with multiple-choice answers; and on the surface they look simple enough. Typical examples: 'At what stage do you advise customers when their order will be delivered?' and 'Do you provide the facility to accept customers' delivery requests?'

However, some are quite telling in terms of what they reveal about the retailer's engagement with the delivery process. For instance, one asks: 'How do you make your headline delivery options visible and clear?' Reading between the lines, the question is asking whether the retailer flags up delivery options explicitly on the home page – something consumers are known to value highly.

Significantly, although you will not find the term 'unattended delivery' flagged up with great prominence in the standard, it is fundamental to the whole proposition, and crops up repeatedly in the accompanying information.

Indeed, one of the questions asks retailers what measures they have put in place to anticipate situations where the consumer can't be at home to accept a delivery. If the answer is none, then unless the consignment can be posted through a letterbox, their application to be accredited will fail.

One thing the standard does not attempt to do is provide consumers with a cast-iron guarantee of a first-time successful delivery. IMRG sees this as a bridge too far – an understandable reticence, since certainty of delivery would be virtually impossible to achieve in the real world.

Nevertheless, the expectations of the standard are quite high. For instance, consider the case of a retailer who insists that deliveries be made only to the credit card-holder's registered address; this policy could prevent the company gaining accreditation, since it makes no allowance for shoppers who want their goods sent to their work address, or to a nominated pickup point.

IMRG has taken pains to make the IDIS Gold application a positive process. Retailers can go to a special IDIS Gold micro-web site and enter their responses to the 16 questions online. Then they can see at a glance whether they meet the standard or not, and proceed with their application if they do.

Backing up the process is a comprehensive set of best practices applying to all the questions, which give retailers clear pointers to the answer that is likely to produce a pass level. And for those who don't make the grade, the special IDIS Gold web site (www.idisgold.org) embodies its own solutions guide, which lists suppliers who offer products or services appropriate to each individual standard.

Who is eligible?

In order to be eligible for IDIS Gold accreditation, retailers need to be accredited already to IMRG's ISIS standard (Internet Shopping Is Safe). This is a long-established assurance scheme under which retailers agree to observe a detailed code of practice on e-commerce trading, and can then display the familiar blue ISIS logo on their web site.

The spin-off IDIS Charter (Internet Delivery Is Safe) has also been around for several years, and is based on a declaration by the retailer that it will observe a nine-point charter on delivery performance. It is limited to ISIS-accredited companies, and entitles them to display a green IDIS logo similar to the ISIS blue one.

While the name IDIS Gold Standard might sound like just an extension of the existing IDIS Charter, in practice it represents a major step change from the earlier IDIS scheme. IDIS Gold looks like the first real attempt to define what good home delivery performance looks like. The hope is that the e-retail market will embrace it.