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Survey: Consumers want more delivery options and greater delivery transparency

Retailers not offering lots of delivery choices aren't making consumers happy. Today's shoppers are willing to pay extra for the delivery option they want, claims a new survey.

January 27, 2016

Retail consumers expect more options and more transparency when it comes to product delivery and are willing to pay more for a delivery choice that best suits their needs.

While most retailers do offer more than one shipping strategy, many don't offer the range that retail shoppers want and expect, reveals a new survey from Temando, which polled 214 retailers and 1,000 U.S. consumers.

"The world has changed. Accessibility to the internet and the insatiable mobility of commerce have inspired a new generation of shoppers. A generation that is not so easily segmented into the traditional psychographic profiles of research past but a generation united by their collective desire to experience the world on their own terms," Carl Harmann, co-founder and CEO of Temando, writes in the introduction to the report, 'State of Shipping in Commerce 2016 (U.S.).'

"This desire for personalization and connected experiences have left many retailers to re-imagine their business in the context of the contemporary customer journey. Traditional, back-of-house operations, such as shipping and fulfillment, have come into the spotlight — not as traditional cost centers but as an opportunity for genuine differentiation in a competitive world."

The survey shows 71 percent of retailers currently offer more than one shipping option, but just 34 percent offer guaranteed weekend or after-hours shipping. The gap comes in as 77 percent of consumers want those options, and of that group 42 percent would pay a premium to have those options.

Overall 61 percent of consumers want one-hour to three-hour shipping options, and 31 percent are willing to pay extra for the convenience. Yet just 20 percent of retailers offer this option. Nearly half, 47 percent, of retailers don't offer same-day shipping, an option that 80 percent of consumers want.

There is good news for future drone delivery services in the report. Just over half, 51 percent, of consumers will embrace drone delivery.

In regard to delivery transparency nearly every consumer surveyed, 97 percent, wants the ability to track products through the delivery process.