Anyline announced findings of its “Last-Mile Delivery: Customer Perception Report 2022.” The survey, conducted on behalf of Anyline by Researchscape, highlights the major pain points of last-mile delivery that have surfaced since the start of the pandemic, as well as shoppers’ demand for visibility and accountability during their delivery experience.
In fact, 88% of respondents said the ability to redirect a delivery would be either very useful or extremely useful, indicating just how much control consumers would like to have in the delivery timeline.
Last-mile delivery challenges in the pandemic era
Consumers have relied more on last-mile delivery in the last couple of years, with many purchasing items online that they would have previously bought only in person, including groceries (43%), home essentials (30%) and restaurant meals (29%). However, the majority of U.S. shoppers continue to face delivery disruptions in the last mile. Anyline’s survey uncovered that close to half (44%) of consumers say delivery timeframes are slower since the start of the pandemic. As well, more than two-thirds (68%) of consumers say they’ve encountered delivery delays.
As last-mile delivery services have expanded, so too have the demands and priorities of consumers. According to Anyline’s survey, the most important factor for customers is for deliveries to arrive consistently on time. The next most important factor to them is having real-time communication about the pending delivery.
Poor experiences can cause shoppers to choose another online business. More than three-quarters (76%) said that an unacceptable delivery experience would strongly or somewhat affect their decision to order from that company again. The number rises for each passing generation, with more than 81% of Millennials responding they would think twice about hitting the order button again after a single poor delivery, and 86% among Generation Z shoppers.
Technologies that improve the last-mile experience
To improve and maintain a positive last-mile delivery experience for customers, businesses can turn to technologies that provide the visibility and control consumers crave, including:
- GPS tracking – Having continuous visibility of a package was by far the most popular tech that last mile providers can give. According to the survey, the ability to track packages using GPS is overwhelmingly popular: 96% of respondents indicated they would find it useful when awaiting deliveries.
- Centralized lockers – Centralized, automated pickup locations, such as lockers, are becoming a popular delivery option, with more than 78% of respondents finding them at least somewhat useful. With lockers, it becomes possible to retrieve a parcel at any time of the day or night without having to wait or to interact with anyone, giving consumers control over when they pick up their package.
- Autonomous delivery robots and drones – The introduction of robots in personal deliveries proved not as popular as more conventional options, as one-third of respondents considered them hardly useful or not at all useful. Younger respondents viewed robot delivery options more favorably than older consumers. In fact, 45% of Gen Z respondents considered autonomous delivery robots very or extremely useful, while 41% of Millennials and 42% of Gen Z respondents thought the same of drone deliveries.
Research methodology
The results in this report are from an online survey conducted by Researchscape International and commissioned by Anyline. The survey was fielded from Feb. 14 to 17, 2022; 1,015 U.S. consumers completed the survey. The responses are weighted to be representative of the overall population by eight demographics.
