Only for men: 'Our clients are happy to wait a little longer'

Same dayornext day deliveryis not a must for Only for Menmust. The menswear retailer wants to be high-profile in the way it delivers, but speed is not its main pillar in doing so. "We are so distinctive with our range that we can afford a slightly longer delivery time," says marketing manager Rens Drost in an interview with LogistiekProfs.

On 14 June, Only for Men will be present at the Logistics & E-commerce 2016 trade day. There, the retailer, which has already taken home the Best Retailer and Webshop Award twice, will reveal how it uses logistics to win over male online shoppers. After all, in a time when consumers have the upper hand online, logistics can act as a unique selling point for online shops.

This often involves thinking about delivery speed, but that is not what Only for Men wants to differentiate itself with. "We have a delivery time of two to three days. Same day delivery or next day delivery we cannot achieve in the short term." This is because the menswear retailer sources stock from its physical shops. "When a customer orders something from us, one item has to come from the shop in Reusel, while another is taken from the shop in Rosmalen. That is taken with the internal freight to our central warehouse, where we carry out a quality check, package everything and ship it to the customer."

According to Drost, a delivery time of a few days is not a problem for the male shopper. About this, he says: "In our reviews, customers never indicate that they find our delivery times too long. They mainly value service and quality. Of course, we do hear about it if we don't meet the delivery time of 2 to 3 days. Then you just don't keep your promise. But if you communicate clearly that how long it takes for a parcel to arrive, customers don't find that a problem."

Deliver within half an hour
The menswear brand does currently experiment with a different way of delivery. Based in Geldermalsen, Only for Men is investigating whether it can deliver orders in that location itself. "In the context of being talkative, we want to deliver orders from the area as early as half an hour, provided of course the order is in stock in Geldermalsen. We don't want to do that for everything and everyone, but this way we can make it very special for some customers." Last week, the first parcels were delivered by Only for Men itself. No special vans are used for this purpose. "The lorry is already on its way from the warehouse to the shop and makes an extra stop at the customer's premises."

Other perks should also endear Only for Men to online shoppers. For instance, the company makes sure its parcels look "festive" and often include a personal note. It also lures online consumers with an extensive range of products. This can be attributed to a recent collaboration with Stockbase, a company that allows suppliers' stock to be linked to retailers' webshops. "We no longer have to buy everything, allowing customers to choose from a wider range than in our physical stores. This extended range also makes us even better found in Google."

Standard shipping amount
Only for Men recently decided to adjust the shipping fee for customers. Until recently, they paid a fee of 4.95 euros for shipping parcels. For an amount over 100 euros, shipping was free. Since three weeks, the retailer has been using a flat shipping fee of 2.95 euros per order. "The previous model encouraged customers to sometimes buy something extra to go over a hundred euros, only to return it for free. The return rate became too high as a result." According to Drost, some 80 per cent of orders were already above a hundred euros. "So then you hardly ever charge shipping costs and no return costs, so we decided to charge a fixed amount. We thought 4.95 was too high, it's out of date. That's why we settled on 2.95 euros." Drost has not yet noticed a drop in conversion since this change.

Rens Drost, together with Only for Men director Piet Feenstra, is one of the speakers at Logistics & E-commerce on 14 June. There, like Walther Ploos van Amstel and Frederik Nieuwenhuys (Picnic), they will give their views on customer-centric logistics. Would you like to be there? LogistiekProfs is giving away two tickets for this day. Read here how to win.

Editorial LogistiekProfs