IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/retrec/v103y2024ics0739885923001282.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Should I wait or should I go? Encouraging customers to make the more sustainable delivery choice

Author

Listed:
  • Kokkinou, Alinda
  • Quak, Hans
  • Mitas, Ondrej
  • Mandemakers, Albert

Abstract

The rise of e-commerce has led to an increase in parcel deliveries, increasing the need to address the cost and environmental impact of last-mile delivery. Customers who have become accustomed to next-day free delivery can play an important role therein by choosing more sustainable delivery options. Retailers and logistic service providers could give customers the choice to wait for their delivery or pick up their parcel from collection-and-delivery points. The purpose of this study was to examine how customers (the parcel recipients) can be stimulated to choose a more sustainable delivery option, and how this affects their satisfaction. Using two scenario-based experiments we found that customers can be steered towards more sustainable last mile delivery choices using financial and non-financial incentives. Financial incentives, in the form of a surcharge for the least sustainable option, were found to be very effective at extrinsically motivating customers to choose a more sustainable option yet had a negative impact on their satisfaction. The results provide insights for retailers to include sustainable delivery options at the check-out, and contribute to decision making on urban planning and utilization of urban space for e-commerce activities, as both parcel lockers and pick-up points require urban space.

Suggested Citation

  • Kokkinou, Alinda & Quak, Hans & Mitas, Ondrej & Mandemakers, Albert, 2024. "Should I wait or should I go? Encouraging customers to make the more sustainable delivery choice," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:retrec:v:103:y:2024:i:c:s0739885923001282
    DOI: 10.1016/j.retrec.2023.101388
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0739885923001282
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.retrec.2023.101388?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Janjevic, Milena & Winkenbach, Matthias & Merchán, Daniel, 2019. "Integrating collection-and-delivery points in the strategic design of urban last-mile e-commerce distribution networks," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 37-67.
    2. Vakulenko, Yulia & Shams, Poja & Hellström, Daniel & Hjort, Klas, 2019. "Service innovation in e-commerce last mile delivery: Mapping the e-customer journey," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 461-468.
    3. Saghiri, Soroosh & Wilding, Richard & Mena, Carlos & Bourlakis, Michael, 2017. "Toward a three-dimensional framework for omni-channel," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 53-67.
    4. Kumar, V. & Pozza, Ilaria Dalla & Ganesh, Jaishankar, 2013. "Revisiting the Satisfaction–Loyalty Relationship: Empirical Generalizations and Directions for Future Research," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 89(3), pages 246-262.
    5. Pahaut, Serge & Sikow, Catharina, 2006. "History of thought and prospects for road pricing," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 173-176, March.
    6. Heleen Buldeo Rai & Koen Mommens & Sara Verlinde & Cathy Macharis, 2019. "How Does Consumers’ Omnichannel Shopping Behaviour Translate into Travel and Transport Impacts? Case-Study of a Footwear Retailer in Belgium," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-19, May.
    7. Elena Kostadinova, 2016. "Sustainable Consumer Behavior: Literature Overview," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 2, pages 224-234, June.
    8. Ranjbari, Andisheh & Diehl, Caleb & Dalla Chiara, Giacomo & Goodchild, Anne, 2023. "Do parcel lockers reduce delivery times? Evidence from the field," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    9. Niemeijer, R. & Buijs, P., 2023. "A greener last mile: Analyzing the carbon emission impact of pickup points in last-mile parcel delivery," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    10. Yuen, Kum Fai & Wang, Xueqin & Ng, Li Ting Wendy & Wong, Yiik Diew, 2018. "An investigation of customers’ intention to use self-collection services for last-mile delivery," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 1-8.
    11. Vakulenko, Yulia & Hellström, Daniel & Hjort, Klas, 2018. "What's in the parcel locker? Exploring customer value in e-commerce last mile delivery," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 421-427.
    12. Martin Savelsbergh & Tom Van Woensel, 2016. "50th Anniversary Invited Article—City Logistics: Challenges and Opportunities," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(2), pages 579-590, May.
    13. Luigi Ranieri & Salvatore Digiesi & Bartolomeo Silvestri & Michele Roccotelli, 2018. "A Review of Last Mile Logistics Innovations in an Externalities Cost Reduction Vision," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-18, March.
    14. Niels Agatz & Yingjie Fan & Daan Stam, 2021. "The Impact of Green Labels on Time Slot Choice and Operational Sustainability," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(7), pages 2285-2303, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fernanda Alves de Araújo & João Gilberto Mendes dos Reis & Marcia Terra da Silva & Emel Aktas, 2022. "A Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process Model to Evaluate Logistics Service Expectations and Delivery Methods in Last-Mile Delivery in Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-18, May.
    2. Milioti, Christina & Pramatari, Katerina & Kelepouri, Ioanna, 2020. "Modelling consumers’ acceptance for the click and collect service," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    3. Mommens, Koen & Buldeo Rai, Heleen & van Lier, Tom & Macharis, Cathy, 2021. "Delivery to homes or collection points? A sustainability analysis for urban, urbanised and rural areas in Belgium," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    4. Magdalena Mucowska, 2021. "Trends of Environmentally Sustainable Solutions of Urban Last-Mile Deliveries on the E-Commerce Market—A Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-26, May.
    5. Buldeo Rai, Heleen & Verlinde, Sara & Macharis, Cathy, 2021. "Unlocking the failed delivery problem? Opportunities and challenges for smart locks from a consumer perspective," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    6. Ashu Kedia & Diana Kusumastuti & Alan Nicholson, 2019. "Establishing Collection and Delivery Points to Encourage the Use of Active Transport: A Case Study in New Zealand Using a Consumer-Centric Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-23, November.
    7. de Kervenoael, Ronan & Schwob, Alexandre & Chandra, Careen, 2020. "E-retailers and the engagement of delivery workers in urban last-mile delivery for sustainable logistics value creation: Leveraging legitimate concerns under time-based marketing promise," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    8. Chen, Ching-Fu & White, Christopher & Hsieh, Yi-En, 2020. "The role of consumer participation readiness in automated parcel station usage intentions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    9. Maja Kiba-Janiak & Katarzyna Cheba & Magdalena Mucowska & Leise Kelli de Oliveira, 2022. "Segmentation of e-customers in terms of sustainable last-mile delivery," Oeconomia Copernicana, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 13(4), pages 1117-1142, December.
    10. Ronan de Kervenoael & Alexandre Schwob & Careen Chandra, 2020. "E-retailers and the engagement of delivery workers in urban last-mile delivery for sustainable logistics value creation: Leveraging legitimate concerns under time-based marketing promise," Post-Print hal-02780647, HAL.
    11. Kotzab, Herbert & Yumurtacı Hüseyinoğlu, Işık Özge & Şen, Irmak & Mena, Carlos, 2024. "Exploring home delivery service attributes: Sustainability versus delivery expectations during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    12. Louis Faugère & Chelsea White & Benoit Montreuil, 2020. "Mobile Access Hub Deployment for Urban Parcel Logistics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-22, September.
    13. Oyama, Yuki & Fukuda, Daisuke & Imura, Naoto & Nishinari, Katsuhiro, 2024. "Do people really want fast and precisely scheduled delivery? E-commerce customers' valuations of home delivery timing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    14. Nils Boysen & Stefan Fedtke & Stefan Schwerdfeger, 2021. "Last-mile delivery concepts: a survey from an operational research perspective," OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research e.V., vol. 43(1), pages 1-58, March.
    15. John Olsson & Daniel Hellström & Henrik Pålsson, 2019. "Framework of Last Mile Logistics Research: A Systematic Review of the Literature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-25, December.
    16. Marta Viu-Roig & Eduard J. Alvarez-Palau, 2020. "The Impact of E-Commerce-Related Last-Mile Logistics on Cities: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-19, August.
    17. Juan Guillermo Urzúa-Morales & Juan Pedro Sepulveda-Rojas & Miguel Alfaro & Guillermo Fuertes & Rodrigo Ternero & Manuel Vargas, 2020. "Logistic Modeling of the Last Mile: Case Study Santiago, Chile," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-18, January.
    18. Lin, Yun Hui & Wang, Yuan & He, Dongdong & Lee, Loo Hay, 2020. "Last-mile delivery: Optimal locker location under multinomial logit choice model," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    19. Peng, Xiaoshuai & Zhang, Lele & Thompson, Russell G. & Wang, Kangzhou, 2023. "A three-phase heuristic for last-mile delivery with spatial-temporal consolidation and delivery options," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    20. Cai, Ya-Jun & Lo, Chris K.Y., 2020. "Omni-channel management in the new retailing era: A systematic review and future research agenda," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    E-commerce; Behavior change; Last-mile services; Data collection; Sustainability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M40 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - General
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:retrec:v:103:y:2024:i:c:s0739885923001282. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/620614/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.