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order themselves at a nearby store—which retailers like
because consumers who make store pickups almost always
buy something else while at the site.
Another emerging trend among consumers is to forgo the
day-specific delivery choices, such as same-day or one- or
two-day, in favor of another option: delayed delivery. In
this case, they’re accepting incentives to better plan their
online purchases and allow them to be “batched,” so the
retailer can consolidate several orders and make one larger
delivery (instead of several individual ones) at some later
point on the calendar, which the consumer can select.
Importantly, consolidation also enables the retailer to use
fewer boxes and less packaging material—another win for
the environment.
The next level of this could find retailers with multiple
brands providing incentives to the consumer such that
when the consumer shops online at the different brands,
the parent brand can consolidate those “across brand” purchases over a period of time and then make one delivery.
Think of an online shopper buying a shirt at Old Navy,
jeans at The Gap, and a jacket at Banana Republic—and
receiving them all in a single delivery. Or a combined North
Face and Lee Jeans purchase delivered together, at the consumer’s direction, a week from Thursday.
Combining shipments from multiple retailers for con-
solidated delivery to individual ZIP codes has tremendous
upside for reducing shipping costs, says Enright. It’s a move
away from the traditional model of “I’m a retailer, and I have
a one-order shipment for the parcel carrier to pick up” to
one where groups of retailers join in consortiums and par-
ticipate in powerful shared digital freight-management plat-
forms. Purchases are not only consolidated but combined
with other of the consortium members’ shipments going to
the same ZIP codes, increasing route density—lowering the
carrier’s costs and ultimately, what it charges the retailer.
In this model, once the sale is made, technology directs
the merchandise collection among brands or stores, picks
the optimal fulfillment site and directs the consolidation,
does the rate shopping and routing, and selects the carrier
and service requirement. The retailer is now part of a pro-
gressive and cooperative digital freight community, where
the consortium is combining shipments from multiple
retailers for consolidated delivery to individual ZIP codes.
It’s engaging consumers and incenting them financially—and with an upside sustainability kicker—to accept
longer leadtimes with fewer individual shipments, all of
which optimize a retailer’s fulfillment efficiency. “That
could be a real game changer,” says Enright. But it will take
a fundamental shift in business culture and practice for it to
happen, he believes.
