American consumers overwhelmingly prefer having their merchandise delivered directly to their homes rather than procure their items via curbside pickup, according to a new national survey from Stamford-headquartered Pitney Bowes.
While curbside pickup options became more commonplace during the Covid-19 pandemic, Pitney Bowes”™ survey found 64% prefer home delivery and 23% prefer curbside pickup when given a choice between the two options; 12% had no opinion. Baby Boomers had the strongest advocacy for home delivery among age demographics, with 73% preferring delivery over curbside.
There was one consumer product category for which consumers preferred curbside pickup over home delivery: 44% wanted to pick up their groceries while 39% had no problems with grocery deliveries to their home. In all other categories, no more than 25% of consumers preferred curbside pickup.
“While consumers like curbside pickup for time-sensitive or bulky items, our research found that nearly two-thirds of consumers will generally choose home delivery over curbside pickup, despite having to wait,” said Vijay Ramachandran, vice president of market strategy for global ecommerce at Pitney Bowes. “For digitally native brands and retailers without the ability to offer curbside, this creates an opportunity to compete with large-format chains.”
