Street Fight Poll: Consumers May Pay Extra for Same-Day Delivery

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PollIn a recent Street Fight poll, 64% of consumers said they might be willing to pay a few dollars extra to receive retail goods faster, though for many it depends on the order.

In the poll of 500 anonymous U.S. consumers by third-party opinions platform Toluna QuickSurveys, 14.8% of respondents said they’re very likely to pay extra for same-day retail delivery, and 14.8% said they’re somewhat likely. And 34.4% said it “depends on the product.” On the negative score, 15.2% of respondents said they’re rather unlikely, and 20.8% said they would be very unlikely to do so.

With sizable numbers in each camp, the results are fairly inconclusive. When sorting the results by age, the 18-to-34 demographic appears much more likely (40% of respondents, combining the very likely and somewhat likely responses) to pay for same-day delivery than the 55+ (16%, combined), reflecting more of a “get it now” mentality among the nation’s youth. But it still matters what the product is.

Expedited shipping options, including overnight delivery, have long been offered by Amazon and several big-box retailers, but several delivery-oriented start-ups have also emerged as intermediaries in the space. Delivery.com offers consumers same-day delivery from local merchants in several major markets, and the San Francisco-based Postmates, through its Get It Now service, promises one-hour delivery to consumers in that city.

Though respondents weren’t asked to expand on the reasons behind their selective reluctance, Neeraj Sharma, VP of marketing at Delivery.com, suggests that vendors’ pricing structures perhaps play a part. To start, Sharma says a lot depends on industry norms; many of Delivery.com’s grocery partners charge for delivery, whereas most restaurant and liquor and wine partners do not. Time of year (holiday or not) and weather conditions (and thus, road conditions) also play a factor.

The most important factor, though, very well could be location, Sharma says, even if region hardly played a factor in our poll results. Take New York City and Washington, D.C., for example. Consumers in denser New York are much less likely to pay extra for same-day delivery than in the nation’s capital, Sharma explains, as many more merchants in the Big Apple already offer free local delivery.

Patrick Duprey is an editorial assistant with Street Fight. Follow him on Twitter @PatrickJDuprey.

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