Why "free delivery" is a wrong concept

The problem

In these times of confinement I guess we all were changing our purchasing habits, going from offline to online. Doing so, I was again confronted with a concept that bothered me for years now, basically since I first started to work with online sales and distribution.

But now during the pandemic I started to realize more clearly, why it was bothering me for such a long time and the answer is quite simple.

A free delivery is not free, it's just paid by someone else.

We all know, that there is basically nothing free in this world, but the label itself brings an intrinsic problem with it, the one of "no value". "Free"means you can use as much as you want, as often as you want, without needing to worry about any negative effect it might have.

In online sales "free delivery" established itself quite quickly as a must-have and people were arguing, that you should have free delivery, as online is a less expensive sales channel compared to traditional brick and mortar stores. This of course is true, but that doesn't mean that the free delivery has no value. It's quite the opposite. The fact that the customer does not have to move, be in traffic, look for parking and spend a lot of time shopping, has an enormous value and yet, we customers were never asked to pay for it.

The consequence is quite obvious: We buy and if we don't like it, we return it, it's free after all. And if delivery is not right on time, we even make a fuss about that. Where else do we complain about a service we don't pay for? All just because "free delivery" has become a "no value" attribute, which basically is expected nowadays. And this is wrong on so many levels!

1. Free delivery comes at a cost and someone has to pay for it. There is cost for picking and packing and then of course a courier is delivering them to your house. In times of a worldwide pandemic these people, on top of working in a job that is not appreciated by the greater public, risk their lives every day. And why? Certainly not for free!
2. We believe that even if we acknowledge, that a free delivery actually isn't free, we don't really care who pays for it. We send things back, without thinking that we just doubled the cost of delivery for the one who has to bear it. (On top we create mountains of trash as most of these items won't be sold again, but that's another issue.)
3. We think that everyone, that works online is like Amazon as has to deliver at the same standards. "Amazon offers free delivery" I often hear as an argument. No they don't, they just ask the seller behind Amazon to pay for it. And then, do we react the same, comparing our local food store to a supermarket? Probably not, but online has made us forget, that behind every store there are still humans, entrepreneurs and small businesses, that will face a tough time in the next weeks. Online has dis-humanized purchasing and we need to correct that.

What can we do about it?

I would argue that on both sides, seller and buyer, there are easy steps to take. Let's look at a few ideas:

First and foremost, let's once and for all strike "free delivery" from our vocabulary and appreciate that delivery is never free. The questions is: "who is gonna pay for it?".

My suggestion would be that the customer pays for delivery for several reasons:

1. Not all deliveries have flat rates. Depending on where you live, prices can double quickly. A customer who chooses to live remotely must understand, that it takes more and costs more to get there.
2. Only the customer can choose how quickly he wants his goods and will appreciate that speed costs money.

Now you might argue as a customer: "but where is my benefit, if the business doesn't have to pay for brick and mortar?" My answer would be 1. the time you don't spend physically shopping is a real benefit and would argue that the better margin for the retailer should reflect in better prices online, but not in a free delivery.

If it is the retailer who pays for delivery then I would suggest to replace "free delivery" with "delivery of xx$ paid by the seller" or "delivery of xx$ is offered to you by...". It's a small but significant difference, as it brings to light the real cost of the delivery and gives the benefit a real value.

In a nutshell

As I mentioned before, there is nothing free is this world and free delivery just sends a wrong message and under-appreciates the work and effort that is done to bring a product right to a consumers door step.

Instead of offering free delivery I would urge businesses to accept, that a better price is probably a better argument to loyalize a costumer than free delivery and is a fair price policy. Online shopping will only replace real life shopping for products that need no trial and no human interaction whatsoever (tickets as an example).

During the pandemic I realized that above all restaurants were starting to give both discounts and free delivery. Whereas I do appreciate the better price (for reasons I mentioned before), the free delivery makes no sense to me and for myself I am always handing back the discount in ways of additional tips to the restaurant and the delivery service.

So remember next time you order online: Free delivery is not free, it's paid by someone else and give some appreciation to the ones that are going out every to day to make your life more comfortable and safe!