Today’s retail consumers expect speed, and they’re willing to shop elsewhere to get it.

It’s difficult to pinpoint what exactly drove the shift toward fast delivery. Maybe it was the Amazon Effect, a global pandemic forcing people to stay home, or maybe everyone finally realized the absolute convenience of ordering online and having the goods show up the same or next day. It’s likely that the answer is D: all of the above.

Whatever sparked the shift, it’s here. B2C and B2B buyers alike expect orders to be delivered faster than ever. This trend doesn’t end at e-commerce either. It also applies to store-based fulfillment, jobsite delivery and any situation where speed factors into the buying decision.

Companies that ignore this reality risk alienating customers who sit one click away from the next seller. However, simply adding ultrafast delivery to an already-strained logistics operation takes resources, infrastructure and money — all of which are under pressure right now.

Yet the e-commerce machine shows no sign of slowing down, which means companies either have to get into the fast delivery game or tap out. Retail e-commerce sales in the U.S. were up 5.4% in 2025, surpassing $1 trillion and accounting for 16.4% of total retail sales, according to U.S. Census data.

Roadie COO Dennis Moon and CFO Ashlynne Hart understand these tradeoffs well, especially the intersection of fast delivery, costs and profit margin. In a recent virtual event in collaboration with CFO and Retail Dive, they discussed how fast delivery now goes beyond fulfillment and plays a critical role in consumer buying decisions.

Slow delivery costs you the cart

Retailers are rethinking their delivery strategies, knowing that consumers will abandon carts if their delivery expectations aren’t met.

Poor delivery experiences can also drive higher returns, more customer service calls and other issues that chip away at a retailer’s margins. “A $5 delivery sounds great, but if it results in a return, it’s more expensive than an $8 delivery that creates a loyal, repeat customer,” says Moon, who has spent decades building and scaling delivery networks for high-volume operations.

Buyers aren’t waiting around for retailers to get it right. According to proprietary research from Roadie and Supply Chain Dive’s Studio, about 28% of shoppers abandon their carts when a same-day option isn’t available, and 75% will switch retailers to get faster delivery of the same item.

“Delivery speed isn’t just an operational statistic; it’s a conversion tool,” Moon explains. “If the marketing team is spending $20 to get a customer to their site, but they leave because delivery is too slow or too expensive, the cost of acquisition effectively doubles.”

The good news for retailers is that retailers don't need to rush to be ultrafast (ex 1-2 hours), since not all orders have the same urgency level. They have a little more time to get it done right. Roadie research shows that 80% of same-day users are fine with end-of-day delivery, giving retailers much more flexibility with routes.

Turn delivery into a conversion lever

In a business environment where it costs five to ten times as much to acquire a customer as to retain one, retailers can’t afford to get fast delivery wrong. The most innovative retailers are flipping the script and turning it into a sales conversion tool. Here are some tips on how to do it:

• Stop treating delivery fees like a profit center. The research is blunt: $10 is the psychological ceiling. If it costs $12 to deliver, charging $15 to cover it will lose the sale entirely. Keep the customer and make up the difference somewhere else (e.g., with loyalty programs, cross-sells or upsells).

• Play the long game. Finding new customers is expensive, yet most retailers price for today's transaction instead of tomorrow's repeat business. Frequent buyers are worth significantly more than the cost of their initial acquisition when measured by their lifetime value.

• Know your customer's urgency. Roadie research shows 74% of consumers will pay extra for same-day service, but 51% say it depends on what they're buying. Figure out which products need speed, price accordingly and position that inventory closer to demand using a cross-dock model like RoadieXD®.
  
  
• Use loyalty programs. Nearly a third (29%) of millennials who shop multiple times a week are already enrolled in at least one loyalty program. Investing in these power users now secures the recurring revenue that sustains a business for the long haul.
  
  
• Address the pricing question. Will customers respond better to upfront pricing, for example, or to optional add-on fees for faster delivery? Put both options out there and see what people choose.

Delivery speed is no longer just a back-end operation – it’s a powerful front-end tool for building lasting shopper habits. Learn to understand what consumers want and what they will pay for, and you’ll protect your margins and drive higher conversions on every sale.