This fireside chat recap is from FreightWaves’ Supply Chain Meets FinTech event on Wednesday.
FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Sourcing new capacity across the supply chain.
DETAILS: A discussion on consumer expectations for e-commerce and direct-to-consumer shipping.
SPEAKER: Mark Lavelle, CEO of X Delivery, a shipping company offering national courier and delivery for e-commerce brands in the U.S.
BIO: Lavelle has more than 20 years of experience in commerce, payments and internet technology. He’s a co-founder and the CEO at Deep Lake Capital, a blank check company seeking a business combination in the fintech or e-commerce verticals. Lavelle was the CEO of Magento when it was acquired by Adobe and he has served in other senior leadership roles with companies like eBay and PayPal.
KEY QUOTES FROM LAVELLE:
On findings from a recent study completed by X Delivery and Santa Clara University on consumer brand selection: “When they are asked what is important to them when they are selecting a brand, certainly price comes up as one. But you know what the other two were? … How much is [shipping] going to cost and when can I get it?”
On the expectation gap that brands need to fill: “We are in this environment where you have fast and very expensive or free but really slow. The interesting middle ground here is, how do you give consumers an expectation of when am I going to get the product, and how can you meet their expectations of what they should be charged for that?”
On what consumers are willing to pay: “We asked them what they would pay. They came back and said for two days, if you tell me I’m going to get it date certain, I will pay up to $7. Pretty significant, but not $15, not $25, and that’s what the cost of the national carriers expedited services are.”