During the summer, consumer spending shifts from routine to recreation, fueled by travel and holiday celebrations like Memorial Day and Independence Day. These activities create spikes in demand for last-minute deliveries of items like groceries, cookout supplies and party essentials.

But the delivery experience isn’t just about speed for these customers; they also demand consistent reliability and damage-free arrivals. Recently, Roadie and Supply Chain Dive’s Studio conducted a survey of 1,000 consumers to uncover their expectations surrounding same-day delivery. One of the results showed that a damaged item in an order is a dealbreaker for nearly half of shoppers when they consider placing an order in the future.

Nailing the balance between fast and damage-free delivery is critical for fostering brand loyalty, driving operational efficiency and boosting profitability. Read on to discover the most important insights from the report that will help you drive your delivery strategy this summer and beyond.

Seasonal demand adds pressure to same-day delivery capacity

Shoppers have grown accustomed to same-day delivery to the point that many don’t bother planning days in advance anymore. Instead, they order what they need on the day of their gathering or event. This consumer behavior compresses delivery timelines, pushing retailers to offer faster, more flexible fulfillment options during these seasonal moments.

But there’s a potential hazard here. While consumers value fast delivery and are even willing to pay for it when an urgent need arises, they’re not willing to sacrifice delivery quality for it.

The reality is that the delivery experience is the brand experience. Customers view delays, damage and missed windows as broken promises that are cause for switching retailers. The survey revealed that nearly half (47%) of consumers have decided against another purchase from a business after only one bad delivery experience. Of those who had a negative delivery experience, 47% cited damage as the reason they did not return to that retailer, and 45% said they never received their order.

The stakes are high for retailers, and that pressure is even heavier during the summer months when family gatherings and travel create heightened expectations. When it comes to assigning blame for a poor delivery experience, 21% of customers placed responsibility squarely on the retailer, and 43% said it was shared between the retailer and the delivery provider. That’s a lot of potential for lost revenue if your focus on speed leaves your deliveries open to damage or other issues. It also creates additional costs in areas such as returns, replacements and customer service.

The key to summertime delivery satisfaction is flexibility

Many retailers feel forced to choose between offering their customers fast or free delivery. But customers don’t see it as an either/or choice; instead, they make purchasing and delivery decisions based on situational, context-driven needs. While they look for (and even expect) free delivery on planned, non-immediate purchases, they’re willing to pay for speed and convenience when something urgent comes up.

The critical component is reliability. If you let your customer down, it’s all too easy for them to find a competitor that offers the speed and trust they’re looking for. And with tools like review websites and AI, it’s easier than ever for your shoppers to find an alternative if they’re unhappy with your business.

One of the biggest takeaways from the survey was that customers value control and predictability of their delivery experience. While free delivery ranked as the most important factor for the delivery experience with 58% of respondents listing it, other factors such as live order tracking and on-time delivery free from damage were also top concerns. An interesting note from respondents: only 26% said receiving their order within 24 hours was the most important factor.

Trust is more important than hyper-fast delivery speed or cost

The survey results made one thing crystal clear: more than lightning-fast speed or delivery cost, consumers value trust in their shopping experience. Above all, they want to know their order will arrive when they expect it, without damage or delays.

Because of their desire for predictability in the delivery experience, customers tend to have more confidence in well-known national carriers than regional or store-run alternatives. Unfortunately, national carriers don’t have the infrastructure to offer same-day delivery cost-effectively, if they offer it at all. The point isn’t to only use big-name carriers but to choose delivery partners who offer the same level of predictability.

While this need for the best of all possible worlds (flexibility, predictability, and low-cost or free delivery) may seem like an impossible ask, it is doable with a few changes in your approach to fulfillment. For example, you could align inventory closer to customers and plan ahead to expand same-day delivery capacity during peak summer weekends. Another tactic is to harness solutions like RoadieXD® cross-docks with just-in-time scheduling to hand your customer’s order off from an incoming delivery truck directly to a Roadie vehicle for the final mile.

Adding a crowdsourced delivery platform to your last-mile fulfillment operation is another way to build flexibility into your delivery offerings. The best strategy is to choose a partner that offers both big-name reliability and crowdsourcing for a faster final mile. Businesses can bridge the gap in their logistics strategy by leveraging UPS for their global and standard shipping needs and supply chain solutions, while utilizing Roadie to handle local, same-day and oversized items that traditional networks can’t touch.

Delivering summer flexibility and reliability to your customers

E-commerce keeps getting more competitive, and retailers who don’t want to race to the bottom on price need to find ways to meet and exceed customer expectations. While free same-day delivery can be hard to offer (if not impossible), the good news is that consumers don’t require both free and fast for every order. Much more important to the delivery experience—and by extension, overall brand experience—is flexibility and more control placed in the customer’s hands.

If you’re wrestling with the challenge of offering both free and fast options to your customers, the Roadie as a same-day delivery solution gives your business a competitive advantage. This combination allows you to offer flexible, customer-forward delivery options for every product type, turning delivery from a cost center into a customer loyalty and growth driver.

To learn more about how delivery influences purchase decisions for modern consumers, check out this recent blog post.