The Last Mile Lens featuring Todd Everett, EVP Sending Technologies at Pitney Bowes

When it comes to e-commerce delivery, shoppers’ needs are evolving. Fast delivery is no longer the best measure of success. Shoppers equally value predictability, visibility, and control. Fast delivery still matters, but not as much when it’s paired with higher prices.

To discuss what shoppers want from their delivery experience today, we sat down with Todd Everett, President and EVP of the Sending Technologies Division at Pitney Bowes, a technology-driven company helping businesses manage the complexity of sending mail and parcels.

Here’s what Todd had to say:

Speed has dominated the delivery conversation for years. Based on what you’re seeing, where does it actually rank for consumers? And what should retailers be focusing on?

First and foremost, retailers are focused on the consumer experience. And consumers want everything. They want free and fast deliveries. They want visibility. It’s great if a retailer can give them all of that, but that’s not where retailers are positioned. They are picking and choosing.

Over the years, there have been many studies on what consumers value. The results are consistent year after year, study after study: Consumers tend to prioritize cost over speed. They’d rather have it free or cheap and a bit slower than more expensive and faster.

Consumers also value consistency, predictability, and solutions when an issue arises, especially when they’re repeat customers. Speed, at least from what I’ve seen, falls after all of these.

As retailers create more personalized customer experiences, where is personalization showing up in the delivery experience?

Today, consumers can choose from specific carriers, not just based on cost and transit time. They can give specific instructions about where and how they want an item delivered. Or they can select the types of notifications and updates they receive. Personalized communication in the post-purchase experience, especially when order issues are detected, is what builds customer loyalty and creates a positive brand experience from a purchase’s start to finish.

Can good communication really make up for a delivery that goes wrong?

Yes, so long as the new expectation is set clearly. But retailers have to deliver on it and keep managing customer communication. In my experience, most consumers can see past the initial issue. They understand things happen, be it weather, mechanical, or labor related. If retailers provide visibility and notify customers of an issue themselves, rather than them finding out after the delivery was missed, they can turn a would-be bad customer experience around.

How can retailers actually find out whether faster delivery adds value, or whether they’re just paying more to meet an assumed expectation?

Retailers can do all kinds of studies and analysis into consumer priorities that try to validate what matters most to them. Is it price? Speed? Free shipping? Transit time? Visibility?

But it really comes down to internal numbers. Are your customers willing to pay for speed when given the option? Retailers can offer a low-cost or free delivery option for deferred transit times. If a customer really wants, or needs it faster, they’re probably willing to pay for premium service.

Giving that optionality is the only way retailers get a firsthand view of how much value speed actually adds. When you put a free standard delivery option next to a paid expedited delivery one, an overwhelming majority will take the free route. McKinsey‘s research puts it at over 95%.

If you’re advising a retail leader on their delivery strategy today, what should they be measuring that they probably aren’t?

Most retailers, when thinking about speed and transit time, are looking at what their carrier partners tell them they’re going to get rather than what they’re actually achieving.

In a world where we’ve got such a broad set of carriers with all kinds of different capabilities, that matters. Some are more geared toward short zones, some long zones, some local delivery. Some handle heavier-weight packages, some lighter. Some are good in certain zip codes and not others. Everybody’s got their niche of what they excel at and where.

So when retailers do their analysis, they shouldn’t just look at stated transit times.

They need to use the real-life data built over time in their models to better understand how their partners are actually delivering. This is also a great use of advanced analytics and AI. By pulling all that data in to get real insights into how networks are performing, retailers will know what their actual results will look like instead of what an anticipated model says they should be.

For the consumer experience, it comes back down to this predictability. And the promise retailers make at checkout is only as good as the data behind it.

Read more of The Last Mile Lens series for conversations with the innovative leaders shaping the future of e-commerce, logistics, and supply chain. As always, reach out to learn more about our  last-mile delivery today. Get a Quote