Since 2014, AlixPartners has surveyed online shoppers all over the world to uncover trends in what they’re ordering online for home delivery—including products they’re buying, delivery services they’re selecting, and their thoughts and feelings about those services. By comparing consumers’ responses from six particular markets, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, China, and Japan, we’ve uncovered trends at both the international and local levels—some surprising, others counterintuitive. Understanding these trends can help online retailers and their home-delivery logistics providers craft smarter strategies for succeeding in each market.
Companies are falling short on consumers’ home delivery expectations
2022 Home Delivery Survey, Executive Insights
The e-commerce surge forced by the pandemic has been a tricky turn of events to tackle for businesses. On one hand, it allowed companies to make significant headway in meeting or exceeding online sales growth goals. On the other, fulfillment and delivery operations and associated expenses rose at a pace that noticeably hurt margins.
Two years on, companies are refocusing on finding efficiencies and reducing fulfillment costs. The challenge is to do so while continuing to meet the increased consumer expectations. Through an executive survey, AlixPartners has found that the industry is falling significantly short.
Part 2 of our 2022 Home Delivery Survey outlines the divergence between consumer expectations and executive’s insights.
Delivering on demand: How many days is too many?
2022 Home Delivery Survey, Consumer Insights
As e-commerce became ubiquitous over the last few years, consumers consistently kept lowering what they considered an acceptable delivery wait time for free shipping further and further. This trend may now be stabilizing.
Consumers appear to be settling at just over three days of wait time on deliveries with free shipping, around the same as in 2021. According to AlixPartners' 2022 Home Delivery Survey, three-fourths of surveyed consumers said they do not mind if their order arrives in multiple packages over multiple days. It's trends like these that are enabling shippers new opportunities to combine orders, ship between distribution centers, and use other similar tactics to both keep shipping and fulfillment costs low and help reduce their environmental impact.
Continue reading to learn more insights from this year's survey and see what trends are on the horizon for the shipping industry.
INSIGHTS ON SUPPLY CHAIN DISRUPTION
Ongoing supply chain challenges spell the growing need for resiliency and sustainability. Read insights on how business leaders are reinventing their organizations amidst ongoing disruption.
2021 ANNUAL HOME DELIVERY SURVEY
Please, please, please let me get what I want—right now
How soon is now? That is the key question consumers have regarding their ecommerce orders. To meet those ever-rising expectations, shippers and fleet operators must take steps to adjust their capabilities, optimize their logistics, and ensure their staff is up to the task. Read about the key considerations to meet customer demand and expectations in our survey results.
2020 COVID-19 REPONSE: INSIGHTS AND ADVICE FOR TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
As the novel coronavirus spread through populations around the globe in most of 2020, US transportation and infrastructure players faced a host of new challenges. By striving to meet immediate imperatives as well as plan for the future, they can contribute to efforts to ensure continuity for communities across the country.
2019 HOME DELIVERY SURVEY
The “do-it-for-me” economy takes root as fast, free delivery becomes table stakes
Home delivery of goods ordered online is rapidly evolving in the United States—illuminating possible forthcoming opportunities in other countries where e-commerce has also shown brisk growth. So, consumers are turning their attention to what’s next: ordering bigger, bulkier, perishable, and more valuable products online. These items present more complex delivery challenges that sometimes require value-added services, such as set-up and installation in consumers’ residences.
2018 HOME DELIVERY SURVEY
Top trend in shipping? Most consumers want fast and free.
Consumers are increasingly seeking the convenience of fast, free shipping. But having a delivery person stock the fridge when they’re not home? That, according to a recent AlixPartners survey, might be crossing the line. Our 2018 report helps retailers and logistics providers anticipate how the online retailing business will evolve in the near term and determine how their own operations will have to evolve in response.
MORE INSIGHTS: Managing the final mile in 2021 and beyond
2021 Home Delivery Study results and discussion
US consumers are emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic with a continuing desire to shop online and have their purchases delivered fast and free. At the same time, the pandemic forced consumers to accept new ways of doing business including using ecommerce for a wider array of products, consumer services and pickup/delivery formats. In this Webinar, Marc Iampieri and Christopher Consodine examine the trends in the US home delivery market over the last decade, including a first glimpse of post-pandemic behaviors and preferences.