Products entering via the southern ports of the UK. This approach required goods destined for sale in the north of England to be transported by road, and made the supply chain vulnerable to delays and disruption on the road networks.

Descartes in combination with SAPIO research, survey 8,000 consumers across ten European and North American countries for the third year running, revealing that whilst 39% have increased their online purchasing, 67% of consumers had experienced a delivery problem and 63% of those took some form of action against the retailer or delivery company.