The importance of the delivery experience

Purchase decisions are strongly influenced by delivery options as well as past delivery experiences. Research shows that online retailers that are not serving the customers with a high-end delivery experience are putting their sales results in peril.

 

When delivery gets closer

Amazon is offering new ways to track, receive and pick up orders with a new digital tool – Amazon Map Tracking – allowing US consumers to follow the progress of their delivery on a map, in real-time. Additionally, a share-tracking-option gives clients the option to send their tracking information to friends and family. Meanwhile, Photo-On-Delivery provides visual delivery confirmation.

Customers, worried about keeping packages safe while they are not at home to receive them, can take advantage of Amazon Key, a contactless package delivery service inside their garage, enabled by Amazons’ smart locker. Originally launched in 50 cities, Amazon is expanding its In-Garage Delivery network to 4,000 cities across the US, making the programme of In-Garage delivery a national endeavour.

Amazon’s biggest North American rival, Walmart, is also testing its in-home delivery system, which includes a few extra services. A courier from Walmart can unload groceries directly into the consumers’ fridges, put medicines in their medicine cabinet or even pick up items they want to return.

 

When delivery gets faster

In Wales, the Co-op is ramping up its online home delivery services, including to smaller towns and rural communities, with a new partnership with Zoom, a local delivery specialist.

Orders can be placed through Co-op’s online shop or app, and be delivered by Zoom within two hours (or one hour, in some cases). Delivery slots can also be booked up to seven days in advance.

Japanese convenience store operator 7-eleven is launching a home-delivery service from its numerous Konbinis around Tokyo. To meet the demand sparked by the Covid19 outbreak, the Service will initially begin with 100 Tokyo stores, and expanding to 1000 from next year.

The Service will take on Amazon with a 30-minutes target delivery time, and will fulfil the core purpose of Japanese Konbinis – that of being convenient and available anytime. To do so, 7-eleven will be accepting orders until late at night.

Euromonitor expects annual online sales in Russia to grow by more than 40% this year; and by an additional 10-15% a year over the next five years.

One of the main beneficiaries of lockdown measures and the e-commerce surge in Russia is Yandex Lavka, a 15-minute grocery delivery service that rolled out in Moscow last year.

Yandex Lavka operates small warehouses across Moscow and uses couriers on bikes, electric cycles or motorbikes for deliveries. Monthly orders have risen to more than 1 million from about 50 000 a year ago.

 

Barcelona-based on-demand delivery start-up, Glovo, has announced the launch of its Q-commerce (Quick commerce), a service that claims to deliver “everything” within cities in 30 minutes – food, toys, music, books, flowers, beauty items, pharmacy products.

“With shops closing down and lockdowns globally, consumers now want and expect more items than ever to be delivered to their doorstep. With this has brought new demands – it is no longer a case of waiting 24-48 hours for a delivery. Rather, the expectation for this is now a matter of minutes,” explains Daniel Alonso Global Director of Q-Commerce and former director of Walmart eCommerce.

To meet customers’ demands, Glovo has partnered with leading retailers such as Unilever, Nestle, L’Oréal, Walmart, Carrefour and Kaufland, to store and deliver their goods.

Glovo will stock third-party products in its warehouses, called “dark stores,” located for now in Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon and Milan, and have couriers make deliveries.

The Spanish Unicorn plans to expand its Q-commerce service to the rest of Europe over the next 12 months and beat Amazon at the urban fast-last-km delivery game.

 

Car-sharing delivery

Shopopop is an innovative collaborative home delivery platform, already present in 84 French department stores, and counting more than 200 000 active users that help retailers to solve the last kilometre delivery in France.

Its success is based on changing consumer habits, e-commerce growth, as well as multiple partnerships with the biggest grocers in the country like Leclerc, Super U, Carrefour, Intermarché and Auchan.

Shopopop has its roots in local communities and neighbourhoods bonds. The users of the platform can have their grocery and parcels delivered to the address of their choice, and the delivery will be assured by a nearby member of the “Shoppers” community. The concept is similar to car-sharing, as the shoppers get financial compensation for the deliveries. With the fast adoption in France, the company has ambitions for Europe-wide expansion, starting with Portugal, Italy and Belgium.