Survey: Holiday shoppers would trade discount for guaranteed delivery
Shoppers are willing to put a dollar value on delivery certainty.
Seventy percent of holiday shoppers would forgo a 5% discount for guaranteed delivery on a specified date, 54% would give up a 10% discount, and 37% would even give up a 20% discount, according to 3PL fulfillment provider Radial’s annual “Peak Season Consumer Survey”.
Younger consumers are more likely to value delivery accuracy than incentives. At the 20% discount threshold, 48% of Gen Z and 45% of millennials would still choose guaranteed delivery, compared with 33% of Gen X and 22% of baby boomers.
In related findings:
•The majority (67%) of consumers trust retailers when they say a delivery ordered by a specific date will arrive before the holidays, but nearly one-third still have significant reservations.
•Consumers want concrete signals that retailer delivery claims are credible, with 48% wanting a money-back or guaranteed shipping rate, frequent tracking updates (43%), a specific delivery date rather than a range (42%) and real-time inventory confirmation (36%).
•After checkout, 56% of consumers monitor tracking updates at least once a day, including 24% who check multiple times a day, to ensure retailers are upholding their end of the fulfillment promise.
Radial’s research shows that a lack of information can cause consumers to make another purchase before an order is officially late. While 12% would purchase a backup gift within 24 hours without a tracking update, 27% would do so after 2 or 3 days and another 21% would act after one week without an update.
[READ MORE: Adobe: AI e-commerce traffic booms, but many retailers lag behind]
When consumers do look elsewhere, marketplaces have the advantage. More than one-fourth (28%) would turn to a marketplace like Amazon or Walmart for a backup, 16% would shop online with a competing retailer, and 22% would go to the same retailer’s physical store.
The study found that discounts remain the strongest trigger for encouraging earlier holiday purchases, but shoppers are also assigning meaningful value to another factor. Over half (59%) of consumers would purchase earlier for a discount or promotion, but guaranteed delivery before the holidays (38%) also inspires earlier holiday shopping. Other factors encouraging early holiday buying include guaranteed product availability (35%), and flexible returns (32%).
Radial is North America’s largest 3PL fulfillment provider also offering integrated payment, fraud detection, and omnichannel solutions to modern and enterprise brands. The company is a division of Bnode, a digital expert in parcel size logistics, operating across Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific region.
"Shoppers have not stopped caring about prices, but the research shows retailers can win customers by instilling confidence in fulfillment expectations and timelines,” said Tom Schmitt, CEO of Radial. “In the face of higher prices, variable customer loyalty and macro factors impacting supply chains, peak success increasingly depends on aligning promotions with the operational ability to deliver against the promises made at checkout."
