Can fast delivery ruin the customer experience?

Marta and her shoes

The sales season is also a test for the largest e-commerce retailers. Customers are consciously choosing brands, but they are also increasingly paying attention to social and environmental issues, not just price.

👩 That's exactly what Marta is like. The environment is important to her. She pays attention to things like eco-friendly, reusable packaging, second-life clothing and shoes, and delivery methods. Marta took advantage of the New Year's sale and bought shoes. The promotion encouraged her to buy two pairs. She also bought a protective product at the end of the purchase. A perfect shopping experience – cross-selling successfully completed.

Day 1. Marta received the package from the courier – fast delivery was a pleasant surprise. Marta was very surprised to find only the ordered protective product in the box, the size of a shoe box.

Day 2. The surprises continued. The next day, the courier delivered another package to Marta – this time, the size of the box indicated a full order had arrived. Unfortunately, the box was half empty (or half full 😊) – and Marta received her first pair of shoes.

Day 3. The next day, Marta received the second pair. This time, too, the package was significantly larger than the contents.

You can probably guess how this situation triggered Marta's emotions. She received three packages, and each one was significantly larger than the product. Marta, a proponent of eco-friendly solutions, felt responsible for the waste and fuel consumption through her purchase.

Marta checked the store's website to see if there was any option to choose single-package delivery, at the expense of delivery time. She didn't find any.

Speed versus ecology – a world of different values?

This situation highlights two problems:
🟢 Focusing only on delivery speed without taking into account other aspects, such as fuel consumption and waste production, is not always the best solution.
🟢 Building a shopping experience must take into account all customer needs.

Brands should manage customer experience by focusing not only on a single value, such as delivery speed, but also by remembering that customers have different needs. In this situation, the discomfort associated with unsustainable delivery outweighed the joy of receiving the goods quickly.

A value like ecology, which every large company cites, cannot be merely a slogan. Customers expect consistency, they want to see values realized in specific brand actions. And most importantly, they want to have choices—ones that align with their values.

Solution

What should a company do in this situation? Of course, delivery in three packages could be a logistical issue, such as storing the goods in three different warehouses, but customers don't realize this. This isn't a hopeless situation. In situations where fast delivery from a single warehouse isn't possible, it's worth introducing the option: "I'm eco-friendly and will wait for delivery in one package" – so customers can choose what's most important to them.

Simple, convenient solutions build good customer experiences, but only if they are credible and not just a facade.