New: 8pm Cut-Off For Next Day Delivery!
18th Sep 2023Posted by Alice Ewens on 18th Sep 2023
We unbox a major upgrade at Furniturebox HQ as we extend our next day delivery cut-off to 8pm! Founders Monty & Dan sit down for a chat on our latest industry-interrupting venture.
Yes, the rumours are true, we're sticking to our guns about being the best online furniture store in the UK. As of the 18th September 2023, Furniturebox is now offering next working day delivery cut-off up until 8pm (some exceptions apply, check our delivery page here). That's a pretty big deal. Your humble Furniturebox blogger, Alice (that's me, hi!), is sitting down with our founders Monty and Dan for a chat about what this all means and why it's so exciting.
Thanks for taking some time to answer a few burning questions, lads! To start with, can you tell us why you are so excited about 8pm next day deliveries and why you decided to offer such a late cut off?
Monty: People don't expect furniture quickly. It is one of the slowest-moving retail sectors to get with the 'eCommerce times'. We’re helping to change that - Furniturebox is the industry disrupter. We believe in an exceptional customer experience, and speed of delivery is part of that.
We’re constantly striving to be and do better, and our customer experience is a huge element. We were aware of a bit of a gap in the market for free next-day delivery with a later cut-off time, so we wanted to meet that demand and better help our existing and new customers get that luxury experience without the hefty price tag. We really believe that having your dream home should be accessible for everyone and want to offer the ultimate service and delivery experience. Life’s too short to be sitting around waiting for furniture.
"Life's too short to be sitting around waiting for furniture."
— Monty George, Furniturebox Founder
Dan: This expansion to our current operations is really going to help a lot of people. For instance, it removes some of the stress of moving house. Customers may move into a house and stress about furniture arrivals and needing to stay in on lots of different days for delivery. Our service will eliminate so much hassle and worry – if next day doesn’t suit, we still offer a choice of day delivery. Not only will it mean that a customer can order a product before 8pm and have it the very next day, it also means quicker problem resolution – our Customer Experience team will also be on hand until 8pm, so any problems or queries can get sorted faster.
Is this the latest next day cut off promise in UK eCommerce? Are you aware of any eCommerce brands worldwide offering a later cut off - particularly on big items?
Dan: We’re yet to find a company that can do the large parcel and multi-box next-day delivery quicker than we can. We can’t be certain that we’re the only ones, but we’re definitely part of a small number at the innovative cutting edge of eCommerce especially, as you say, for the bigger bulkier items.
Why do you think a late cut-off time for next-day deliveries is important for a furniture brand?
Dan: We’ve been ahead of the curve when it comes to furniture delivery right from our early days. We were one of the first furniture brands to be offering next day delivery when we launched in 2015. At the time this was pretty unheard of for large bulky items but much more common on smaller parcels. We want to continue to be the best furniture brand on the market, particularly when it comes to the exceptional service we offer our customers, and continually improving our delivery offering is really key to that.
How are you able to offer such a late cut-off for deliveries and ALSO make them free?
Monty: We were very fortunate to have a very successful couple of years. We were in the right place at the right time to support people through the difficulties of lockdowns. We decided to re-invest that success back into the business to bring our new warehouse to life. The 88,000 square metre plot is 15m tall, giving us room to expand our product lines and hold more in stock. All of this has enabled the later next-day delivery cut-off. We’ve always offered free delivery (where we can – some restrictions do apply) so we weren’t going to change that – it's an important USP for us. We work with a range of couriers, utilising all of their individual strengths, and have built on our excellent relationships with them to offer this service.
Have there been any logistical challenges in offering such a late cut off?
Dan: As Monty said, we work with a number of couriers, so ensuring we had one that was on board to handle the additional late pick up, able to commit and carry out an expansion of our operations has been a lot of work. Also, ensuring we have the team here in place to service the later cut-off. There’s been a lot of company-wide adjustments to make this work. We ran a month-long trial between May and June 2023 to ensure our teams and our courier partners could cope with the late cutoff and that went really well. We have employed an extra warehouse operative and 2 additional Customer Experience team members to support the expansion. We’re so proud of how everyone has really come together to make sure it’s seamless.
"We’re so proud of how everyone has really come together to make sure it’s seamless."
— Dan Beckles, Furniturebox Founder
Our new HQ and warehouse in Chippenham opened a year ago. How important is the new warehouse in implementing this 8pm cut off?
Monty: Being right on the M4 really is key to achieving this cut off. Our new warehouse has quick access to major distribution links, meaning we are able to attain these cut off times. We’re also closer to many of our courier’s hubs. It all means we save time on getting our goods out onto the transport network, which is in everyone’s interest.
We trialled the 8pm cut off for a month in May - how did that go?
Dan: The 8pm cut off trial was a huge success – we ran it from the 15th May for 1 month, and it was ultimately what sealed the deal on us rolling this out properly. During the trial, we increased revenue by 17%, and our conversion rate was up by 5.88%. Though there was a lot of other things going on at the same time so it’s hard to be definitive about the impact of the 8pm cut-off. Of all the orders placed after 1pm and before 8pm during the trial, we successfully delivered 97% of them.
We are perfectionists, so we’ll always be striving to be the best! A later cut off point is a step in the right direction to achieving this.
