Covid-19 and its effect on consumer preference in the last-mile delivery : A study on Swedish consumers and the last-mile delivery industry in Sweden

Abstract: Background: E-commerce has experienced tremendous growth in the past few years. At the same time, the Covid-19 pandemic has swept across the world. As a result, many people became enforced to stay more at home because of restrictions and lockdowns, resulting in an even larger increase for the e-commerce industry, and some changes in consumer behavior. In relation to this, the last-mile delivery industry has seen demand shock as a result of the increased volumes within e-commerce. Purpose: The purpose of this paper aims to answer two research questions: How have Swedish e-consumer behaviors and preferences towards delivery services changed due to the Covid-19 pandemic? And how will Swedish e-consumer behaviors and preferences towards delivery services change after the Covid-19 pandemic? Method: With the research questions in mind, an exploratory inductive study was developed using qualitative and quantitative data. As a result, an interview and a survey were developed. The interview provided first-handed insights from the industry to better give an understanding of the challenges of the pandemic and the effect on consumer preferences. The survey on the other hand investigated consumer preferences regarding five different LMD service offerings: home delivery iiwithout signature, home delivery with signature, delivery to service points, delivery to parcel lockers, and pick-up at web shop's physical store. Another aspect of the survey is that the consumer preference is explored before, during, and after the pandemic.  Conclusion: The findings of this study conclude that Covid-19 has significantly impacted peoples' preferences regarding last-mile delivery preferences. As a general conclusion, consumers prefer delivery methods which reduce human contact as well as travel distance. The findings of this study will provide the industry with meaningful insights as well as contributing to the existing knowledge of last-mile delivery.