Due to the influence of e-commerce retailers such as Amazon and Zappos, many customers expect their online purchases to involve free shipping after a certain price threshold. The option of overnight or same-day-delivery is another critical tool in some merchants' belts and is a possible way to persuade consumers away from competitors. 

However, retail industry professionals may wonder which of the two is the more important to emphasize with their shoppers, or which is more key to integrate into ongoing operations. Internet Retailer recently reported on findings from Forrester Research that indicated consumers are more interested in free delivery than fast shipping. 

This makes sense. After all, lower prices are frequently one of the advantages to shopping online. If customers wanted to pay more to have something right away, they could buy the product or service at the nearest brick-and-mortar store. 

Of course, being able to offer both free delivery and quick shipping times can provide a powerful incentive for shoppers to change retailers. The Forrester report noted that 92 percent of the top 50 e-retailers provide free delivery to their customers. Coupling that with fast shipping can aid merchants at winning over consumers.

Improve delivery costs and speed
However, providing also entails considerable investment and efficiency in delivery methods. To provide inexpensive shipping, some retailers are turning their brick-and-mortar locations into shipping centers, according to the Detroit Free Press. This allows them to stay competitive against e-commerce giants like Amazon. Rather than shipping from central warehouses, distributed store networks are also often closer to their customers. 

"Amazon has already beaten most retailers on price and selection. The third battleground is location and the smart retailers are not conceding that," said Tom Allason, founder of start-up Shutl, which helps retailers deliver online orders from stores.

For merchants to turn their physical locations into mini delivery hubs, they will have to implement retail software that overcomes departmental silos and can manage the point of sale from the digital shopping cart to the brick-and-mortar store that will deliver goods. The Detroit Free Press noted that Wal-Mart started applying this strategy two years ago and that it has had great success with it so far. Other retailers that begin using this shipping method could experience a notable reduction in related costs, all while providing better service to their customers.