Dive Brief:
- Roughly 60% of holiday shoppers prefer to buy from retailers offering same-day delivery, according to a Dropoff survey. Unsurprisingly, that number rises to 67% for last-minute shoppers. A total of 90% of last minute shoppers seek to buy from retailers offering same-day delivery.
- Retailers benefit by earning loyalty, with roughly 75% of Dropoff's respondents claiming they are more likely to purchase from a retailer again if they have same-day delivery. Millennials particularly prefer the service, as 89% said they'd return to a seller offering the fulfillment option.
- Real-time tracking also matters to consumers, 90% of whom said they would revisit a brand/retailer that offered updates. Tracking gift arrivals is vital to 77% of last-minute shoppers.
Dive Insight:
Speed of delivery is rapidly becoming the de facto new barometer of customer service.
Despite the well-known struggle of last-mile logistics, consumers of almost every type of retail offering are increasingly judging sellers by their ability to get it there faster. Even such everyday items as office supplies are now offering same day delivery, not only to compete with each other, but also with — you guessed it — Amazon.
Same-day delivery faces several serious obstacles to achievement, from an inability to plan which items will likely be purchased and thus wrapped and packaged in advance, to finding reliable staff to make the delivery. Using a service or a middleman to make the delivery is problematic as well, since not only can cost be prohibitive, but also exposes customer data to a third party.
Despite these issues, same-day delivery has become a retail imperative. Given that reality, some important questions remain: who covers the real cost, and will consumers accept the incremental increase if it filters down to them?
