Online shoppers want speed in delivery, raising the bar for B2C e-commerce delivery

Demand by consumers for free and convenient delivery is driving online retailers and delivery service providers to look for a wider range of delivery methods. Among the trends on the market are intensified competition for quick delivery, growth of the free delivery option, and a movement of some retailers to establish their own logistics and delivery services.

Researchers at Hamburg-based secondary research organisation yStats.com report in their new publication, Global B2C E-Commerce Delivery 2014 that since Amazon.com introduced same day delivery in the US, many e-commerce players and multi-channel retailers have followed, such as Google Shopping, eBay and Wal-Mart in the US, online luxury retailer Net-a-Porter in the UK, online merchants Snapdeal in India and Jingdong in China.

However, global surveys show that many online shoppers value free delivery over same-day delivery. Shoppers also want other delivery options such as delivery at an appointed time, or pick-up in-store or at another arranged location.

Another trend is that retailers are developing and strengthening their own delivery networks, moving fulfilment centres closer to customers and increasing delivery from nearby stores rather than logistics centres where possible. By intensifying these activities, online and multi-channel merchants are entering the province of fulfilment companies and parcel carriers such as DHL, UPS, FedEx and others.

In the North American e-commerce market, more merchants in the US offer free and same-day delivery options, while the larger ones are developing their own delivery fleets. More than three quarters of online shoppers value free delivery more than same-day delivery.

In Asia, online shoppers generally seem to give more importance to speed of delivery. Fast delivery was an important criterion for choosing an online shop for nearly 20% of online shoppers in Japan in 2012. A third of online shoppers waited for three days for their online purchase to arrive, while a slightly larger share waited for around week at one point last year. Moreover, the majority of online shoppers in Japan would like to have the option to specify delivery hours and to choose the delivery day.

In South Korea, B2C e-commerce delivery is one of the major fields for intense competition in online retail. The majority of B2C e-commerce orders were delivered door-to-door last year, nearly all by couriers, as postal services accounted for less than 1%.

Competition on the fast growing B2C e-commerce delivery market in China is fierce, involving local and international operators and retailers, who fight for offering more options and faster delivery times. In September 2013, a high double-digit share of online shoppers in China regarded free shipping as the major factor in B2C e-commerce delivery.

In India, several large online merchants launched same day delivery early this year despite the undeveloped logistics infrastructure.

In Indonesia, less than 20% of online shoppers have ever received free delivery of goods purchased online, while in Singapore this share was higher than one third.