Retailers need to provide and improve their home delivery, while continuing to maintain margins and offer more

Retailers have spent decades learning how to optimize the in-store experience. Now they will have to optimize the at-home experience. Home delivery services and same-day are driving retailers to rethink their processes.

But are they looking at the right place to ensure profitability in this new shopping mode? Retailers will need to rethink what consumers are shopping for—service and delivery, not just product and price, are now part of consumers’ buying choices. And they will need to rethink how their customers shop, transforming those moments in the ordering process—not just at the point of sale.

Retailers are recognizing the new competitive challenge—the need to provide and improve their home delivery. Retailers know they are not just competing on products, since many offer the same brands. They are competing now on availability, convenience, and service.

The challenge then is maintaining margins, while continuing to offer more. And at the same time, delighting the customer—remembering that home delivery becomes the point of experience by which the consumer will remember the retailer forever. A few leading companies have gone beyond just maintaining, to generating, through their home delivery models, more revenue, increased close rates, and reduced logistics cost per delivery.