Home News Features Compliance

đź•’ Article read time: 2 minutes

Why sustainable home delivery is a win-win for consumers and retailers alike

Sponsored content


Focusing on sustainable home delivery will generate greater sales and more profitable operations, explains Chris Jones, EVP, Descartes.

Two seemingly conflicting trends are coming together that, if addressed correctly, could provide retailers with a competitive advantage and make them more profitable. First, consumers are increasingly concerned about the environment and are more willing than ever to act to protect it.

Second, the pandemic kicked online buying and home delivery into “high gear” as many consumers embraced its convenience and dramatically expanded the scope of their online purchasing.

So, how can these two trends be mutually beneficial? Isn’t home delivery supposed to be the antithesis of sustainability? Since neither trend is going away, harnessing both represents an excellent opportunity for retailers to improve their competitive position and profitability while helping the environment.

That’s exactly what the recent study Retailers: Sustainability is Not a Challenge, It’s an Opportunity concluded. Conducted by Descartes and SAPIO Research, the study surveyed over 8,000 consumers in Europe and North America for their perspectives on retailers’ sustainability practices around delivery operations. Here are five points that paint a compelling picture of why retailers need to adjust their delivery practices to take advantage of consumer environmental concerns.

  1. Consumers are making purchasing decisions based upon environmental impact. The study found that overall, 39% of consumers do consider the environmental impact of a product and company when making purchasing decisions. This number rises to 42% for respondents aged 25-34. Interestingly, only 11% said they never made a purchasing decision based upon the environment.
  2. There’s plenty of room to differentiate with sustainable delivery. The study found that only 38% of consumers thought retailers were doing a good job of using sustainable delivery practices (see Figure 1). This means that consumers are paying attention to retailer delivery practices and many retailers are not performing well in this area. In the case of grocery and apparel purchases, 40% and 39% respectively said that they would buy more from those retailers whose delivery practices were more sustainable than the competition.
  3. Consumers want sustainable delivery options. Half (50%) of the respondents were quite/very interested in environmentally friendly delivery options. Even more (54%) said that they would be willing to accept longer lead times for environmentally friendly deliveries.
  4. Consumers are more flexible than retailers think. Half (50%) of the respondents thought the ability to combine orders was quite/very important. Almost half (48%) said that they were quite/very interested in having retailers recommend the most environmentally friendly delivery option. In fact, three of the top four options involved combining orders or having the retailer select the most sustainable delivery option.
  5. Sustainable home delivery options result in lower costs to the retailer. Options from increasing lead times to grouping orders, to providing eco-friendly time windows, help retailers lower both their carbon footprint and their delivery costs. Longer lead times decrease delivery costs through better delivery planning and mode selection. Order consolidation means fewer trips to the customer and higher delivery density. Eco-friendly deliveries also create greater delivery density, which reduces distance per delivery. These concepts apply to multiple delivery modes including private/dedicated fleet, LTL and parcel.

Instead of thinking that sustainable home delivery is a challenge, retailers need to see it for the opportunity it presents. It is clear that consumers are increasingly interested in more sustainable home delivery. These trends are an opportunity to create a win-win-win situation. Sustainable home delivery makes consumers happier and more loyal, lowers delivery costs and helps the environment. Not every consumer will care, but the numbers are significant enough to easily justify offering sustainable delivery options. Better for the environment is better for your business. What are your sustainable delivery strategies?

*www.descartes.com

Published On: 10/11/2022 16:00:42

 

Comments Section

If you are a Logistics UK member login to add comments.

There are no comments yet.


Chris Jones, EVP, Descartes

Latest articles

Incoming Transport Minister Heidi Alexander must prioritise logistics to support growth, says Logistics UK CEO

Following the resignation of Transport Secretary Louise Haigh MP, Logistics UK, one of the UK’s biggest business groups and the only organisation which represents all of logistics, says the incoming Secretary of State, Heidi Alexander MP, must seize the opportunity to drive Labour’s growth mission by prioritising logistics and acknowledging its foundational role in the economy.

Read time: 2 minutes

View article

Out and About & In the Mix

A snapshot of where the Logistics UK policy team have been and who they've seen in the past week.

Read time: 2 minutes

View article

Flying Scotsmen?

Transport Scotland’s National Speed Management Review Consultation could see the speed limit for HGVs on single track roads raised to 50 mph.

Read time: 2 minutes

View article

E-news archive

You can also view our e-news archive here.

E-news archive

Interested in Membership?

Get in contact using the Membership Enquiry Form.

Membership Enquiry Form

Logistics Magazine Portal

The hub for finding relevant and informative features, news & compliance guides from Logistics Magazine

Logistics Magazine Portal Home

Sponsorship Opportunities

Learn more about advertising on the new digital Logistics Magazine, with a variety of advert options to reach 30,000 relevant readers.

Sponsorship Opportunities

Magazine Contents

News

Logistics Magazine will cover all the latest news on stories breaking in the industry, including developments on COVID-19,  Brexit, Clean Air Zones, transport law and decarbonisation.

News

Features

Our frequent features will tackle the broader issues affecting logistics such as the COVID-19 vaccination programme, technology and innovation, the political and economic landscape, global trade and the drive to reduce emissions across all transport modes.

Features

Compliance

Each month we explore a different topic in depth in our popular Compliance section, while each week we will publish answers put to our Member Advice Centre team.

Compliance

View Supplements and Previous Printed Editions

View Supplements and previous printed editions of Logistics Magazine here.

Previous