Delivery options – including home delivery – serve as a major asset for retailers when faced with fierce competition. As such, delivery lead times are a key factor. Home delivery and its various conditions are the best way to enhance loyalty, and remain practically the only formal contact between the buyer and seller. Home delivery is therefore a precious weapon when it comes to bettering customer relations. Large sales companies have understood this perfectly, and invest colossal amounts of money to maximise and optimise last-mile services.

The last step to home delivery includes the last mile, which is also the most expensive. The only alternative to home delivery is delivery to a pick-up point.