Nearly all retailers plan to offer same day delivery by 2025, compared to just 35% offering it today, according to a recent survey conducted by last-mile delivery platform Bringg.
The December survey of 500 enterprise retailers from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy found that 99% of respondents planned to offer same-day delivery in the next three years.
2021 saw many more companies offering or expanding same day delivery to meet increasing customer demand, including J.C. Penney and Shoe Carnival over the holidays, powered by DoorDash, and American Eagle Outfitters through a partnership with ShopRunner. Abercrombie & Fitch took it a step further, expanding same-day delivery nationwide through a patchwork of partners.
But there are headwinds to these plans. More than a third of respondents (36%) said they don’t have the technology to implement real-time order visibility needed to execute same-day or on-demand delivery, and 24% called out the distance needed to travel from fulfillment center to end customer as a major roadblock to on-time performance.
When it came to performance against meeting customers’ delivery expectations, responses were a mixed bag. While 56% were “highly satisfied” with their ability to offer multiple pickup/delivery options, nearly two-thirds of that group (64%) felt they were behind in terms of manual processes and technology. Over half of total respondents (54%) were satisfied with the quality of their delivery services, but 43% of that group said they struggled with scheduling. And just 29% were satisfied with their ability to offer customers adequate delivery windows.
It appears delivery speeds overall are increasing, with some regional variations. Next-day was the most prevalent option, offered by 58% of respondents, while 35% offer same-day delivery and 31% offer 30-minute delivery. While the U.S. leads in next-day delivery (63%, vs. 60% in the UK, 59% in the EU and 48% in Canada), it lagged in same-day (26%) behind Canada (46%) and the UK and EU (34% each).
For 30-minute delivery, the EU was the leader, offered by 40% of retailers surveyed, followed by the UK (32%), Canada (31%) and the U.S. (20%).
“To match plans for two-hour and 30-minute delivery, retailers will need to get closer to their customers by connecting to local fulfillment warehouses, ship from store and other technology and resources built to support these models,” Bringg said in its report.
Sustainability is also a top priority for retailers, according to the Bringg survey, with 56% of respondents saying they’re currently using some type of electric vehicles (cars or bikes). Given the steep increases in charges from major carriers, over half (56%) said they’ve diversified by using multiple carriers to handle their ecommerce deliveries, with a third using crowdsourced fleets.
However, there appears to be a sizable “sustainability knowledge gap” between consumers and retail executives, according to a recent report from First Insight and the Wharton Baker Retail Retailing Center at the University of Pennsylvania graduate business school.