Should I wait or should I go? Encouraging customers to make the more sustainable delivery choice

Abstract

The rise of e-commerce has led to an increase in parcel deliveries, increasing the need to address the cost and environmental impact of last-mile delivery. Customers who have become accustomed to next-day free delivery can play an important role therein by choosing more sustainable delivery options. Retailers and logistic service providers could give customers the choice to wait for their delivery or pick up their parcel from collection-and-delivery points. The purpose of this study was to examine how customers (the parcel recipients) can be stimulated to choose a more sustainable delivery option, and how this affects their satisfaction. Using two scenario-based experiments we found that customers can be steered towards more sustainable last mile delivery choices using financial and non-financial incentives. Financial incentives, in the form of a surcharge for the least sustainable option, were found to be very effective at extrinsically motivating customers to choose a more sustainable option yet had a negative impact on their satisfaction. The results provide insights for retailers to include sustainable delivery options at the check-out, and contribute to decision making on urban planning and utilization of urban space for e-commerce activities, as both parcel lockers and pick-up points require urban space.