Carriers need to take action on out-of-home (OOH) deliveries or risk missing out to their competitors, according to new research by ecommerce technology provider Doddle.
Its latest survey of over 200 European retailers found a little over half of respondents are using a carrier-provided tool to offer OOH delivery – but 44% of respondents said they would switch carrier provider if they offered better integrations. Around a third said their carrier did not offer any way to display out-of-home delivery locations at checkout.
Tim Robinson, CEO at Doddle, explained: “There’s a warning for carriers in our dataset: if they don’t make it easy for retailers to offer out-of-home delivery, they could lose their business. They need to ensure they have the tools for retailers to build a brilliant delivery experience right from the checkout, where consumers are making crucial decisions.
“The good news is that they can then drive more volume into those cost-effective out-of-home delivery channels by encouraging non-adopters to start offering a wider set of delivery options. To that end, they should continue building the statistical evidence that merchant KPIs are likely to improve when they offer OOH delivery. They can also position it as their most sustainable delivery option: 80% of our survey respondents indicated that they believed it was important to offer consumers a sustainable delivery option. That’s a role out-of-home delivery should absolutely be promoted to fulfil.“
The majority of retailers offering OOH delivery saw an increase in conversion, average order value or Net Promoter Score after introducing the service, and those who do not offer it were found to underestimate the potential benefits it brings, Doddle stressed.
“Our merchant respondents are broadly already engaged and offering out-of-home delivery options at the checkout, with the majority seeing at least one significant benefit and many seeing several KPIs increase after introducing the out-of-home option. However, there remains much to improve and a widespread desire for assistance from carrier and logistics partners in making those improvements,” concluded Robinson.
