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Retailers have spent years trying to compete on speed. Same-day and next-day programs became the standard as companies pushed to match what Amazon promised. But faster doesn’t always mean better. If a package shows up too soon, the customer may not be home to receive it. If it arrives late, trust is lost. Either way, the experience falls short.
The better path is to focus on accuracy. A customer places an order on Monday afternoon. The item is in stock, checkout is smooth, and the confirmation email says the order will arrive by Friday. At 2 p.m. that day, the package is on their doorstep. Not earlier. Not later. Exactly when expected.
That accuracy builds customer confidence. It’s not about getting the product faster. It’s about knowing when it will arrive and being able to plan around it.
The most compelling evidence of this shift comes from recent consumer research. 90% of consumers are willing to wait two or three days for deliveries, especially if it lets them avoid shipping costs, according to McKinsey 2025 survey data. This represents a fundamental evolution in consumer priorities, driven by economic pressures and a growing appreciation for value over velocity.
What customers expect from delivery
McKinsey’s numbers paint a clear picture of what actually matters to consumers:
- 95% of respondents prefer free shipping with standard delivery to paying for expedited delivery.
- More than 90% of customers will abandon an online purchase over high shipping costs.
- About 50% of consumers say they won’t pay for shipping at any speed.
- Consumers rate reliability as more important than same-day delivery.
Retailers are adapting to these preferences by offering delivery options that are tailored to cost, speed, and proximity. The goal is to give customers control and clarity, while optimizing for operational efficiency. That strategy depends heavily on where the customer is and where the product is. While companies like Walmart and Amazon can execute this quickly due to their robust supply chains and membership models, other retailers are embracing tools like in-store pickup or leveraging memberships to drive satisfaction and conversion.
At Rithum, we help retailers present the most optimal shipping method—balancing customer satisfaction and margin—by analyzing all critical variables, including location, processing time, transit time, and dimensional weight. This means retailers can sometimes offer faster delivery without increasing cost. One stat we often share: for every day a retailer can shave off the delivery promise (without adding cost), they can increase conversion by up to 20%.
Consumers are actively strategizing to avoid shipping costs, often increasing their order values in the process. For retailers, this represents an opportunity to drive higher average order values while reducing shipping complexity.
Amazon’s pivot: accessibility over speed
Even Amazon, the company that essentially created the need for speed, is showing signs of strategic evolution. In April 2025, Amazon announced a $4 billion investment to expand faster delivery services to over 4,000 small towns and rural areas by the end of the year. This initiative prioritizes enhancing shopping accessibility for underserved communities, rather than pushing the speed envelope further in already well-served urban markets.
This move signals Amazon’s shift from speed dominance to a focus on accessibility and reliable service in underserved markets.
This reflects the core of Rithum’s Delivery Promise: giving retailers the tools to meet expectations with confidence, not chase speed for its own sake.
The real cost of speed
The financial reality behind speed-focused shipping strategies is becoming increasingly unsustainable for many retailers. Geopolitical factors like tariffs and conflicts in the Red Sea have increased container shipping costs over the last year. In July, USPS announced price increases as high as 10% across Ground Advantage, Priority Mail, and Parcel Select services. UPS and FedEx have also continued to raise rates significantly, contributing further to rising delivery costs.
These costs don’t exist in a vacuum. They inevitably impact pricing strategies, profit margins, and business sustainability. The logistics infrastructure required to support ultra-fast delivery, including distributed warehousing, specialized transportation networks, and expedited processing systems, represent a massive capital investment that many retailers struggle to justify when consumer priorities are shifting.
Product inventory may differ between big brands and boutique shops, but there’s a common denominator: shipping rate increases will either force retailers to absorb the cost or pass it on to their customers. This creates a challenging scenario where retailers must choose between eroding their margins or potentially losing price-sensitive customers.
In many cases, retailers also struggle with visibility into how shipping costs are being attributed. That lack of clarity makes optimization difficult. At Rithum, we surface the full data picture, including carrier performance, transit time, and cost per package, to ensure every shipment is aligned with the most profitable outcome.
Consider sustainability as a value driver
While not the primary driver of consumer behavior, environmental consciousness is one factor influencing purchasing decisions. McKinsey survey data found that 51% of consumers say the environmental impact of purchases is extremely or very important to them, which has remained fairly consistent since 2020.
Slower shipping options contribute to environmental sustainability by enabling more efficient route planning, consolidated shipments, and reduced carbon emissions from expedited transportation methods.
Companies that can articulate the environmental benefits of standard shipping while maintaining competitive pricing and reliability often find receptive audiences among environmentally conscious consumers. Consumers are willing to spend an average of 9.7% more, and on products that are produced or shipped more sustainably, and 58% of Shorr survey respondents prefer brands that have publicly committed to sustainability goals.
While Amazon is widely recognized for incorporating sustainability into its logistics strategy, other retailers are starting to explore similar approaches. Rithum’s fulfillment data allows retailers to reduce waste, avoid excess miles, and make smarter shipping decisions that support both cost savings and environmental impact, even if they aren’t leading with that message today.
Companies like DHL eCommerce, which provides CO₂ emissions tracking at checkout and low-impact delivery options, and Amazon, which promotes eco-friendly fulfillment through its Climate Pledge Friendly program are helping lead the charge in sustainable shipping practices. Many other retailers and logistics partners are following suit.
Delivery expectations are your best differentiator
There are opportunities for retailers to differentiate themselves through factors other than delivery speed. Reliability, customer experience, and transparency are becoming the new competitive battlegrounds.
Accurate delivery expectations are surprisingly powerful. Research suggests that mismatched delivery expectations are a leading cause of customer dissatisfaction. In the Mckinsey survey, consumers ranked transparency in shipping as their second most important priority, behind only cost.
Customer experience extends far beyond delivery time. It includes easy tracking, flexible delivery options, hassle-free returns and responsive customer service. These elements can create strong customer loyalty even without shaving delivery time.
Once a customer finds a product, what they really want is a clear and accurate delivery date. Delivery commitments like “arrives by” or “get it in X days” build more confidence than a vague three-to-five-day window. Rithum’s Delivery Promise is designed to surface these accurate estimates by analyzing ship-from/ship-to locations, inventory availability, carrier schedules, and other key data points, ultimately helping retailers meet expectations and improve conversion.
The role of fulfillment intelligence
As consumer priorities shift, the retailers that thrive aren’t necessarily those with the fastest delivery times, but those with the smartest fulfillment strategies. The ability to dynamically optimize shipping times, costs, and fill rates becomes the true differentiator.
Retailers embedded in large commerce networks benefit from insights into shipping performance, cost-per-package metrics, and demand patterns that enable them to make informed decisions about when speed matters and when it doesn’t. This intelligence allows for strategic flexibility: offering expedited shipping for time-sensitive purchases while promoting cost-effective standard shipping for regular orders.
The key is having the data and tools to make these decisions intelligently, rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach to all orders and customers. Traditional fulfillment models, while challenging, operate within relatively controlled environments. Dropship and private marketplace fulfillment introduces exponentially more complexity: hundreds of suppliers with varying capabilities, different shipping standards, multiple inventory systems, and fragmented communication channels.
Modern delivery solutions are built to handle this complexity. These platforms connect disparate systems and automate manual decisions that would otherwise require constant human oversight, providing retailers with comprehensive visibility across fragmented supplier networks.
One of the biggest challenges retailers face is ensuring supplier compliance with preferred carriers and service levels. We solve this using both End-to-End Monitoring and by providing the shipping label itself, with each reinforcing the standards that drive cost-effective, on-time delivery. Additionally, Rithum leverages predictive data like supplier processing times to create more accurate delivery windows and reduce the risk of delay.
Looking forward
The data strongly suggests that the race to the bottom on delivery times may have reached its practical limit. Consumers are signaling that they value cost savings, reliability, and transparency over marginal improvements in speed.
To meet these demands, many retailers are pulling back from same-day or next-day programs, instead focusing on three key goals:
1. Setting an accurate delivery promise.
2. Optimizing cost to meet that promise—which may involve either a downgrade or upgrade of service, and
3. Driving supplier compliance by offering the shipping label, which ensures use of preferred carriers and service levels.
These strategies are helping retailers improve profitability while maintaining high levels of customer trust.
By focusing on these priorities rather than pure speed, retailers can build more sustainable business models and stronger customer relationships.
The companies that thrive in this new landscape will be those that understand their customers’ actual priorities and build fulfillment strategies accordingly. Retailers that lead in today’s market deliver on time, control costs, and give customers confidence at checkout.
Ready to transform your delivery operations? Rithum’s Delivery Solutions help retailers balance speed, cost, and customer satisfaction through automated tools that can cut shipping costs by 10% or more while improving delivery performance with no added headcount. To learn more, talk to Rithum.
P.S. – Rithum’s delivery capabilities aren’t exclusive to dropship. We help retailers optimize across both dropship orders and their own owned inventory by applying the same fulfillment intelligence across all fulfillment methods.
John Fobare is Vice President, Client Partnerships at Rithum.
