Delivery Is Now or Never🕑

Welcome to MarketMaze, where delivery is the new battlefield. Shoppers want speed, but what really moves the needle is free shipping—and marketplaces are taking it all. Today’s edition breaks down who’s winning the delivery race, what buyers now expect, and who’s getting left behind.

Main Story
🕑 Delivery Is Now or Never
🚚 US Shoppers Put Free Shipping Over Speed

Insights🧠
🇺🇸 Amazon and Walmart Dominate, Target Sputters 🏁
🇺🇸 Ecommerce: Clothing Drags, Beauty Booms 📈
🇺🇸 Instacart Bets on Amazon’s Appetite 🥑

LET’S ENTER THE MAZE!
- Artur Stańczuk, MarketMaze Founder

The delivery race is officially on, and brands are falling behind. The Future Shopper 2025 survey (Mar 2025, N=25,563) reveals shoppers are obsessed with speed—across every product, every age group, every country. The research proves marketplaces are the new gatekeepers of fast, free, reliable shipping, leaving everyone else to eat dust.

Forget “soon”… consumers want their orders yesterday. A staggering 32% of global shoppers now expect delivery within just two hours, a figure that jumps to 50% for grocery buyers. No industry is safe from these demands: health, finance, alcohol, and even homeware all face double-digit pressure. The average bar has been raised and it’s not coming down. Brands clinging to slow logistics are headed for extinction as real-time gratification becomes table stakes.

Top marketplaces lead by massive margins on all delivery factors: 44% of shoppers pick them for both convenience and free delivery, 46% for pure speed, and 41% for easy returns. The second-best marketplace doesn’t come close—let alone retailers, grocers, aggregators, or social apps, all languishing in single digits. Fast, seamless delivery isn’t just a perk; it’s the moat that keeps marketplaces untouchable.

The cost of slow delivery is brutal: 40% of global shoppers say “no thanks” to brands that can’t deliver next day or on their schedule. This isn’t just a Gen Z tantrum—nearly half of all consumers under 35 will walk away, and even among 45–54s, 37% refuse to wait. Only a small group of over-55s are slightly more patient. Bottom line: fail on speed and you lose sales, across all ages, all baskets.

What do consumers really want fixed in delivery? More speed (35%), lower prices (30%), and clearer, more transparent timing (29%). But the story doesn’t end there: real-time tracking, sustainable packaging, and control over delivery slots are all rising in priority. It’s not just about “faster”—it’s about control, visibility, and value. Anyone hoping to win in e-commerce has to tick all those boxes.

Sources: 🔒 Available for MarketMaze+ subscribers

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US shoppers have made up their minds: free shipping beats everything. According to the Ryder 2025 Consumer Study of 503 US online buyers (Jan & May 2025), people care less about blazing-fast delivery or generous returns, and more about cutting out shipping costs and gaming thresholds. These seven slides break down the psychology of the shipping wars.

Free shipping is the dealbreaker in US e-commerce. From 2023 to 2025, the share of shoppers naming it their top purchase driver soared from 64% to 76%. By contrast, fast shipping, free returns, and even picking your own delivery date trail far behind. If your shipping isn’t free, your cart is at risk. The data makes it clear: make shipping free, or get left behind.

America’s obsession with speed is cooling. In 2025, just 29% of shoppers expect their online orders in 1–2 days—down from the 2024 peak of 34%. The majority now accept a comfortable 3–4 day window, with 59% happy to wait. Retailers, take note: you don’t have to break the sound barrier to keep your customers coming back.

The hype around same-day delivery is overrated. Only 11% of US shoppers say they often buy because it's available, while 32% rarely do, and a hefty 21% never do. Most buyers simply don’t care—speed alone can’t win loyalty. For the vast majority, urgency has left the chat.

Here’s the free shipping paradox: 70% of Americans admit to adding extra items to their cart just to qualify, but 80% refuse to spend more than $50 to get it. Retailers can nudge baskets higher, but push too hard and shoppers check out elsewhere. The “free shipping” lever works—up to a point.

Nothing kills a sale like surprise shipping costs. In 2025, 70% of US shoppers said they abandoned their cart after seeing unexpected shipping fees. The sting isn’t just emotional—47% of buyers will actively research which retailer offers the best shipping deal before they buy. Hidden fees aren’t clever, they’re conversion poison.

The era of “I want it now” is fading. In 2025, 32% of Americans say they value being able to schedule their delivery over pure speed—nearly double from 2023. For a growing chunk of the market, convenience means getting a package when it suits them, not just as fast as possible.

Sources: 🔒 Available for MarketMaze+ subscribers

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Amazon and Walmart are feasting while Target’s on a diet. Q2 2025: Amazon’s US sales surged +11%, Walmart clocked in at +5%. Target? Still stuck, down -1%. The real story: Americans are funneling dollars toward speed and convenience. Walmart and Amazon now pull in a combined $221B a quarter, leaving Target (just $25B) with a shrinking piece of the pie—and a new CEO, Michael Fiddelke, who just inherited a headache: shrinking sales, tariff threats, and a brand identity crisis. Speed wins, value wins, and Target’s lagging on both. 👉 eMarketer

The ecommerce scoreboard is running hot—unless you’re selling shirts. Year-to-date 2025: every online category is beating forecasts except clothing, which is actually dragging down the total market. Health & Beauty is the MVP, hitting ~18% growth, Sports & Outdoors are crushing it, but Clothing’s posting a near -7% return. Translation: The rest of ecommerce is sprinting, but apparel is an anchor. The takeaway? Don’t bet your quarter on sweaters. 👉 LinkedIn

Instacart’s CEO Chris Rogers wants you to believe Amazon’s fresh grocery push is a rising tide that lifts all boats. His pitch: grocers panic, call Instacart, buy more enterprise tech. The numbers show Walmart (70%) and Amazon (54%) still rule US online grocery, while Instacart’s in third place, hoping for scraps—er, partnerships. Meanwhile, Amazon and Walmart are in a delivery arms race: Walmart’s John Furner brags about five-minute deliveries, Amazon’s Jassy touts a 30% YoY jump in next-day orders. Instacart’s opportunity? Sell tech to everyone else before Amazon eats their lunch—and maybe theirs too. 👉 eMarketer

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MarketMaze team