Doddle, a global e-commerce technology provider, has announced the findings of its latest survey, designed to gather insight on out-of-home (OOH) delivery. Over 200 European retailers have taken part, sending a clear message to carriers that they need to seize opportunities to grow through cheaper and more sustainable OOH delivery methods, or they risk missing out to their competitors.

Although more than half of respondents have said they are currently using a carrier-provided tool to offer OOH delivery, they also said they would not hold back from switching to another carrier provider if it offered better integration. That is because around a third said their carrier did not offer any way to display out-of-home delivery locations at their checkout.

“There’s a warning for carriers in our dataset: if they don’t make it easy for retailers to offer out-of-home delivery, they could lose their business. They need to ensure they have the tools for retailers to build a brilliant delivery experience right from the checkout, where consumers are making crucial decisions. The good news is that they can then drive more volume into those cost-effective out-of-home delivery channels by encouraging non-adopters to start offering a wider set of delivery options,” said Tim Robinson, CEO at Doddle.

“To that end, they should continue building the statistical evidence that merchant KPIs are likely to improve when they offer OOH delivery. They can also position it as their most sustainable delivery option: 80% of our survey respondents indicated that they believed it was important to offer consumers a sustainable delivery option. That’s a role out-of-home delivery should absolutely be promoted to fulfil,” Tim continued.

The majority of retailers offering OOH delivery saw an increase in conversion, average order value or Net Promoter Score after introducing the service, and those who do not offer it were found to significantly underestimate the potential benefits it brings.

“Our merchant respondents are broadly already engaged and offering out-of-home delivery options at the checkout, with the majority seeing at least one significant benefit and many seeing several KPIs increase after introducing the out-of-home option. However, there remains much to improve and a widespread desire for assistance from carrier and logistics partners in making those improvements,” concludes Tim.