NEW REPORT: The Delivery Economy and The New Customer Experience

Today, convenience, speed, and simplicity reign supreme among customers, and have moved delivery to the core of the new customer experience.

Whether it’s a consumer or business customer, the “Delivery Economy” — the pervasive sentiment in which customers expect low-cost, fast and highly transparent delivery of goods — has irrevocably changed the customer experience, and brands are paying attention and attempting to respond.

To better understand how both consumers and brands view the Delivery Economy, project44 commissioned a blind survey of 750 consumers and 500 marketing executives in June 2019. Here are some of the key insights we uncovered about a rapidly changing landscape.

An Evolving Delivery Economy

Consumers are increasingly expecting fast, inexpensive, transparent shipping — an expectation that consumers now say is just as important to their purchase decision as the price of a product. Both a majority of consumers and marketers believe the growth of on-demand delivery apps has impacted customers’ expectations for delivery, moving it to the forefront of the consumer experience and playing a key role in the customer’s perception of a company’s brand.

The minute-by-minute updates provided by on-demand delivery apps are influencing how much visibility consumers want during the delivery process for all their purchases — whether personal or for business. Our report found that marketers are recognizing this shift and working to offer services that meet consumer expectations.

Every Minute, Every Mile

A key part of the delivery experience is apps that offer the ability to track shipments and give updates on the progress of the delivery. We found that 70 percent of consumers want this ability and 82 percent of marketers reported offering it. But consumers and marketers may be viewing tracking differently, especially when you consider the influence of on-demand delivery apps and their minute-to-minute tracking.

Even though consumers’ expectations and marketers’ offerings are aligned on many aspects, demands are continually changing. And marketers can only control so much when it comes to the delivery aspect of the customer experience. Increasingly, they need to partner internally with product sourcing, inventory, logistics and shipping, warehouse operations, transportation and delivery providers, and customer success teams to deliver the actual type of experience customers expect.

What Happens When Brands Fall Short?

The expectations for fast, inexpensive, transparent delivery will continue to grow, and it impacts brands with both consumers and B2B buyers, as 94 percent of business buyers said they expect the same level of focus on their customer experience and satisfaction as when they’re making personal purchases.

Brands simply can’t afford to ignore, or even lag behind, when it comes to meeting these expectations, since 74 percent of consumers say that when a package isn’t delivered within the designated period of time, it hurts their impression of the company. In fact, a majority of consumers say they will complain, with 49 percent holding the retailer or ecommerce site responsible, and 42 percent placing blame on the delivery company.

The Future of the Delivery Economy is Here

This report underscores how vital supply chains are to the modern customer experience. It without a doubt proves that both B2C and B2B customers expect a low-cost, fast and highly transparent delivery of goods.

The resulting tension building within organizations as they look to satisfy modern customers might stem from the fact that legacy logistics technologies cannot keep up with the Delivery Economy. Today’s most innovative retailers, manufacturers, and distributors are leveraging project44’s Advanced Visibility Platform™ to mature transportation capabilities. Rather than living with the legacy and manual processes, they’re recognizing that if delivery is core to customer experience, then supply chain, logistics, and transportation are a core part of the business organization — and must be invested in.

For more insights into how delivery is taking center stage in the customer experience and how companies are responding, download the full report.

And be sure to follow project44 on Twitter and LinkedIn to stay updated on trends and news about the Delivery Economy