The effect of type of company doing home delivery during a pandemic on consumers' quality perceptions and behavior

Abstract

PurposeIn the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers increasingly opt for, or are forced to, use home delivery services. The authors study retailers' decisions regarding “delivery mode”, which is about outsourcing (vs. insourcing) the delivery service to a traditional delivery company or an unbranded carrier and its effects on consumers' perceived overall quality, perceived hygienic quality, and subsequently, willingness to stay with the firm beyond the pandemic.Design/methodology/approachA pre-test, an experiment and a post-test were conducted with participants from the UK (Total N = 380).FindingsThe results of this study show that (1) in a pandemic, perceived hygienic quality overshadows perceived service quality as a key determinant of consumers' choices, and (2) while consumers have a relatively negative view of the hygienic level of unbranded carriers, they do not differentiate between traditional delivery carriers and retailer-branded carriers. Thus, they are equally interested in using the services of the latter ones.Originality/valueThis study shows that during a health crisis, consumers change their hierarchy of motivations to reflect the new protection motivations. The authors usher perceived hygienic quality as a variable that should be seriously considered as both a tactical and a strategic variable affecting the attractiveness of alternative home delivery methods and consumers' intentions to continue using them after the pandemic.

The Role of Brand Love, Trust, and Commitment in Fostering Consumer Satisfaction and Loyalty

“…In addition to these factors, brands that were developed in response to emotional and personal experiences have an impact on consumers' decisions to switch to alternative goods and services (Das et al, 2019;Fusva et al, 2021;Junaidi, 2022). But management philosophies and top-notch customer service also have a big influence on what consumers decide (Movarrei et al, 2021;Rocco & Selinšek, 2021). During and after the COVID-19 pandemic, some companies which provided courier and logistic services faced to economic downturn.…”

Service supply chain resilience: a social-ecological perspective on last-mile delivery operations

“…It has significantly accelerated the rapid growth of e-commerce and the number of home deliveries which has increased significantly (Schaefer and Figliozzi, 2021), not only for traditional online shopping items but also for essential goods such as PPE and food (Singh et al, 2021). That has brought critical challenges and problems for LMD (Pimenta et al, 2022), including unsatisfactory delivery service quality (Movarrei et al, 2022), inefficient home deliveries (Che et al, 2022), increasing troubles in urban areas (Boysen et al, 2021), and health and safety-related issues (for example, human-human infection) around people within the LMD service supply chain (Modgil et al, 2021). Various technologies have been introduced to try and address such challenges, such as autonomous delivery vehicles (Kapser et al, 2021) and automated parcel lockers (Schaefer and Figliozzi, 2021).…”

“…That has brought critical challenges and problems for LMD (Pimenta et al. , 2022), including unsatisfactory delivery service quality (Movarrei et al. , 2022), inefficient home deliveries (Che et al.…”

“…However, this does not automatically translate into revenue growth because it also brings huge pressures to bear on LMD services (Pimenta et al, 2022). The capacity (Micheli et al, 2021) and quality (Movarrei et al, 2021) of LMD services directly influence not only service supply chain performance, but also customer experience and the well-being of wider society (Modgil et al, 2021). Quarshie et al (2021) warned that such a delivery boom will become unmanageable without a sustainable approach.…”

“…The capacity (Micheli et al. , 2021) and quality (Movarrei et al. , 2022) of LMD services directly influence not only service supply chain performance, but also customer experience and the well-being of wider society (Modgil et al.…”