Tamebay Black Friday Delivery Speed Test Results

By Chris Dawson December 14, 2020 - 10:00 am

The complete Tamebay Black Friday delivery speed test results are in as the final item has arrived and so we are able to present the full stats in the table below.

Delivery Speed

Although 3 items arrived after the latest estimated delivery date, one arrived on time and the remaining 11 all arrived at least one day earlier than promised. However equally important is the earliest estimated delivery date as we know optimistic buyers look at this and hope for the best.

Latest estimated delivery date results

On average the 15 parcels arrived 2.2 days earlier than the latest estimated delivery date
The range was 19 days (From 12 days early to 6 days late)
One parcel arrived on the latest expected delivery date, 11 were early, 3 were later than the estimated delivery date

Earliest estimated delivery date results

On average, the 15 parcels arrived 0.267 days earlier than the earliest estimated delivery date
The range was 16 days (from 7 days early to 8 days late)
One parcel arrived on the earliest expected delivery date, 9 were early, 5 were later than the estimated delivery date

Delays

Perhaps most interesting stat from our delivery speed test results is that the final item to arrive, which like all the others was purchased on Black Friday morning on the 27th of November and was posted on Sunday the 29th of November, took a full 13 days to be delivered from Birmingham to Berkshire via Royal Mail’s 2nd Class Signed For service.

We pointed out last week that Royal Mail, despite intense planning, are struggling to cope with the peak Christmas post due to the pandemic generating record levels of parcels so if you’ve not yet done your online Christmas shopping get it done immediately and then cross your fingers, sit back and be patient. There’s a very good chance that if your purchases also take 13 days to be delivered they might not arrive in time for Christmas.

Shipping speed

Key to fast shipping is how long a seller takes to despatch an item – we can only judge this from the day the item is marked as despatch bearing in mind some sellers might not mark as despatched until the following day whilst others might mark as despatched but the item not be passed to the carrier until the following day.

Number of days to despatch

3 items were marked as despatched on Black Friday (Same-day despatch)
6 items were marked as despatched on the 28th Nov (One-day despatch)
2 items were marked as despatched on the 29th Nov (Two-day despatch)
3 items were marked as despatched on the 30th Nov (Three-day despatch)
1 items was marked as despatched on the 1st Dec (Four-day despatch)
Average days to despatch was 1.53 days

From all of the Tamebay Black Friday Delivery Speed Test purchases only one came from outside the UK and arrived via 4PX who transferred it to Royal Mail. The others were all (as declared) bona fide UK sellers.

All items except from Amazon were delivered via Royal Mail, even when the service was specified as ‘Other 48 hour courier’, but sellers utilised a range of services including: 1st Class; 2nd Class; 2nd Class Signed For; Royal Mail 48; and Whistl.

The five orders placed on Amazon all arrived via Amazon Logistics.

Black Friday Delivery Speed Test Results Table

Marketplace	Advertised Service	Estimated Delivery	Delivery Cost	Despatch Date	Delivery Date	+/- Estimate
Amazon	Amazon FBA	Mon 7th Dec – Sat 12th Dec	Prime Account	Sun 29th Nov	Mon 30th Nov	-12
OnBuy	Standard RM48	Sat 5th Nov – Tues 8th Dec	Free	Tues 1st Dec	Wed 2nd Dec	-6
OnBuy	Standard RM2nd	Fri 4th Dec – Mon 7th Dec	£1.16	Fri 27th Nov	Tues 1st Dec	-6
OnBuy	Standard RM1st	Thu 3rd Nov – Sat 5th Dec	Free	Fri 27th Nov	Mon 30th Nov	-5
eBay	Royal Mail 2nd Class	Thu 3rd Dec – Sat 5th Dec	£0.65	Sat 28th Nov	Wed 2nd Dec	-3
eBay	Royal Mail 1st Class	Wed 2nd Dec – Fri 4th Dec	Free	Sat 28th Nov	Wed 2nd Dec	-2
eBay	Royal Mail 2nd Class	Thu 3rd Dec – Sat 5th Dec	Free	Fri 27th Nov	Thu 3rd Dec	-2
Amazon	Amazon FBA	Sun 29th Nov by 8:00pm	Prime Account	Sat 28th Nov	Sat 28th Nov	-1
Amazon	Amazon FBA	Sun 29th Nov	Prime Account	Sat 28th Nov	Sat 28th Nov	-1
Amazon	Amazon FBA	Sun 29th Nov	Prime Account	Sat 28th Nov	Sat 28th Nov	-1
Amazon	Amazon FBA	Sun 29th Nov	Prime Account	Sat 28th Nov	Sat 28th Nov	-1
eBay	Other 48h courier RM48	Wed 2nd Dec – Thu 3rd Dec	Free	Mon 30th Nov	Thu 3rd Dec	=
eBay	Other 48h courier Whistl	Wed 2nd Dec – Thu 3rd Dec	£1.95	Mon 30th Nov	Fri 4th December	+1
OnBuy	Standard RM48 (4PX)	Sat 5th Nov – Tues 8th Dec	Free	Fri 27th Nov	Thu 10th Dec	+2
OnBuy	Standard RM2nd Signed For	Thu 3rd Nov – Sat 5th Dec	Free	Sun 29th Nov	Fri 11th Dec	+6

Tamebay Black Friday Delivery Speed Test set up

We started a Tamebay Black Friday Delivery Speed Test as a small scale check on how well delivery promises are being kept. We’ve seen multiple marketplaces extend delivery promises this year including both eBay and Amazon, so the results above reveal how well they meeting their extended estimated delivery dates.

In the Tamebay Black Friday Delivery Speed Test we made 15 purchases across the Amazon, eBay and OnBuy marketplaces with a variety of estimated delivery dates and different carriers. We accepted whatever the first postage offered was and also, noted that on Amazon all purchases were from Amazon FBA, wanted to see if Amazon Logistics would carry out the deliveries or if alternative carriers were used.

All purchases were made between 10.15am and 10.30am on Black Friday 2020, the 27th of November. It’s worth noting the estimated delivery times were pushed out by the marketplaces to anything up to 10 days or more.

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