Developing a taxonomy of consumer preferences for enhancing B2C e-commerce last-mile delivery: delivered food

• Main Author: Teo, Ee Lin
• Other Authors: Teo Chee Chong
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2022
• Subjects: Engineering::Maritime studies::Maritime management and business
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/163945
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased consumers’ reliance on online food delivery (OFD) platforms, a trend that is expected to continue even after the pandemic. The surge in OFD orders has resulted in OFD platforms facing some difficulty in keeping up with the demand. Furthermore, if more labour regulations are imposed on the OFD industry, OFD platforms possibly face a more challenging business environment due to their reliance on freelance riders to provide delivery services. Thus, OFD platforms must remain adaptable and consider further promoting the use of self pick-up as a viable alternative to delivery. This will allow OFD platforms to diversify their service offerings and meet the growing demand for OFD services in the future. This report aims to address the use of self pick-up on OFD platforms, a topic that has not been widely studied in existing literature. By exploring the key factors which influence customers to use self pick-up over door-to-door delivery on OFD platforms in Singapore, suggestions can be made to improve the self pick-up customer experience and encourage its adoption. A qualitative method of data collection was employed where semi-structured interviews were conducted with OFD platform users to gain first-hand insights into the preferences of OFD platform users. An analysis of the interview responses using inductive thematic analysis revealed three key factors that influence customers to use self pick-up on OFD platforms in Singapore: convenience, price, and greater control. These insights contribute to research in the OFD sector since an enhanced understanding of customer preferences will allow OFD platforms to gain insights on how to better encourage their users to opt for self pick-up. Further research can be done to explore alternative last-mile delivery options such as self pick-up from smart lockers.