EDSI Best Student Presentation and Paper Award awarded to Felix Bergmann

The research paper entitled “The Impact of a Delivery and Return Service on E-Commerce Customers’ Purchasing Decisions” is authored by Felix Bergmann, doctoral student at the Chair of Logistics management, Fabian Alber, a former M.Sc. candidate at the chair, and Prof. Dr. Stephan M. Wagner. The study aims to support retailers to find out which last-mile delivery services are important to their customers and, hence, which specific service bundles they should offer. To this end, the authors conduct an adaptive choice-based conjoint survey among 200 participants, in which six selected attributes that characterize a last-mile logistics service are examined. The findings suggest that the delivery fee is the most important attribute to customers closely followed by the delivery location and the order lead time, while a sustainable delivery strongly gains traction. Subsequently, the authors develop a simulation tool to assess the potential market success of various last-mile logistics service portfolios. The choice simulator can predict the share of a distinct logistics service option within a portfolio of services. The analysis of common scenarios implies that consumers’ logistics service preferences are very heterogeneous and that a diversified delivery option portfolio can significantly reduce the share of consumers for whom no logistics service option is acceptable and who would therefore abandon their online shopping cart.