More than half of Brits think same-day delivery is “important”, following a significant change in shopper’s attitudes towards the service over the past two years.
The news that most Brits now expect same-day deliveries has been revealed by ParcelHero. A recent consumer survey by the home delivery expert showed that while 33% of online shoppers believed that same-day delivery options were important back in 2020, that figure has now risen to 56%.
The pandemic has forced many consumers to shop online more frequently, boosting the share of online sales from 19% of the overall retail market in February 2020 to 30% of all sales today. As a result, shoppers’ expectations have risen dramatically.
“We’re now starting to see the full impact of Covid-19 on our shopping habits,” commented ParcelHero’s head of consumer research, David Jinks. “Increasing knowledge of delivery options transformed consumers’ expectations of what services their favourite brands should be offering.”
Jinks also pointed out the results show that people increasingly want to see their favourite stores “offering the same delivery options as Amazon Prime”.
Read more: Retailers’ final order dates are “too optimistic” says ParcelHero
In addition to the increased interest in same-day deliveries, 62% of those surveyed expect next-day delivery options (up from 44% in 2020), while 55% want specific, two-hour time slots (up from 44% in 2020).
“This is a dramatic rise in online customers’ expectations,” he continued. “Prior to the pandemic, most online purchases were for non-essential items such as entertainment products and electronics.
“Over the last two years, online buyers have become wary of the high street and out-of-town shopping malls. Many have switched to ordering household essentials such as groceries online, with same-day delivery options increasingly popular. Consumers now want to have all their shopping – luxury items as well as household essentials – delivered on the same day.”
While same-day deliveries are vastly more expensive than next-day services, just 64% of shoppers said they are willing to pay more for the service, while just 61% were willing to wait slightly longer for greener, more sustainable deliveries (down from 74% in 2020).
According to Jinks, this transformation in same-day delivery expectations could prove to be “bad news for smaller store chains who don’t have distribution centres spread across the country”.
“There is a vast difference between the infrastructure needed for same-day deliveries than for next-day,” he explained. “To make same-day delivery economically viable, firms need high and consistent volumes of daily orders within a reasonable radius of their distribution hub… For many retailers, [that] is impossible.”
Read ParcelHero’s study in full here.
