Delay Assumptions About Fast Shipping

A competitive advantage your bricks-and-mortar retail store can offer when compared to online ordering is that the purchaser can walk right out immediately with what you’re carrying in-store. Yet the small to midsize store retailer also benefits from taking special orders, even though this means a delivery delay to account for shipping time. It would seem you’d always want to assure your shopper this delay is as short as possible. However, a longer wait time is sometimes to the benefit of both the retailer and the customer.
     Researchers at Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Rice University say that offering ground shipping, as opposed to overnight shipping, increases the probability that consumers will decide to purchase a higher quality product rather than a counterpart at the middle price range. This effect is consistent with a broad range of studies showing how people think differently about buying when the purchase is for right now than for the future. They pay attention to different features depending upon when they plan to start using the purchase. If usage is planned for soon, ease of use is especially important. If usage is planned for the future, distinctive features are especially important. Moreover, savoring a purchase which won’t arrive for a while often gives the consumer pleasure in itself.
     Consumers who are gathering information for future use tend to process measurement information in terms of units rather than numbers. Let’s say you need to tell the purchaser about a delay. When is it better to say, “Your product will be arriving in three weeks, not one week,” and when should you use, “Your product will be arriving in 21 days instead of 7”?
     If the customer is anxiously awaiting the arrival in order to start using the item, favor the first wording. In this case, the customer is looking for small. If the customer’s focus is instead on, “I made the purchase then because it was a great price, but I won’t be using the item right away,” describe the delay in terms of days.
     Sexual cues lengthen the subjective time interval until an item is delivered, according to studies at University of Southern California and University of Pennsylvania. Waiting for your special shipment of lingerie to arrive will seem longer than waiting for your special shipment of cashews. That is, unless you’re one of those people who find cashews to be really sexy.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

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