Survey finds delivery offering crucial for purchasing decisions

A recent survey has confirmed that parcel delivery has a major impact on consumer decisions.
The survey, conducted by IT firm Localz, questioned consumers across Australia, the UK and the US on last-mile delivery.
The survey found that 94 per cent of customers would choose a different shop or brand based on different delivery options.
Survey respondents shared that their biggest delivery bugbears were long delivery windows and ‘we missed you’ cards.
Almost four in five respondents noted that they considered an acceptable delivery ‘window’ to be two hours or under. Receiving an accurate ‘estimated time of delivery’ was shown to be a big deal, rated ‘very important’ by 47 per cent of customers, and ‘important’ by another 36 per cent – only one per cent of respondents said an accurate delivery time estimation was ‘not important’.
“If Aussie business intends to compete with the impending introduction of Amazon, and more competition generally, they need to think hard about their delivery transport,” commented Walter Scremin, General Manager, Ontime Delivery Solutions.
“You might have a great product line but if you can’t get it to customers in a timely, professional fashion they will try your competitors.”
He added that too many Australian businesses rely on courier companies for delivery. “Couriers can play a useful role for small, ad-hoc delivery orders,” he said. “But if your business is managing large numbers of regular orders, or needs to ship large, unusual or fragile parcels, you would be crazy to trust that to a courier company.
“Couriers are not set up to focus on a unique business, making it incredibly difficult to achieve consistent, high-performing deliveries.”