The Effect of Delivery Time on Repurchase Behavior in Quick Commerce

“Quick commerce” refers to meeting consumers’ instant needs by delivering products ordered online within minutes. Although speed is thus inherently important, little is known about how deviations from communicated delivery times (whether late or early) might affect repurchase behavior. The authors study the effects of delivery time deviations on repurchase behavior using a large, customer-level, transaction data set from a Western European food delivery service and a controlled online experiment. The results show that late (early) deliveries increase (decrease) interpurchase times; these effects diminish with larger deviations. The results also show that late deliveries have a stronger effect on repurchase behavior than early deliveries of the same magnitude. The controlled online experiment establishes customer satisfaction as the underlying psychological mechanism that mediates the effect of delivery time deviations on repurchase behavior. These findings advance understanding of delivery time deviations and repurchase behavior by complementing prior research on disconfirmed waiting times and quick commerce. Practitioners can use the results to optimize their delivery algorithms, operations, and service recovery efforts.