The rapid growth in online retail sales in New Zealand during the recent years has resulted in a considerable change in consumers’ shopping patterns and goods’ last mile transport, as an increasing number of small freight vehicles deliver goods bought online to online shoppers, rather than consumers carrying goods home from a physical store. This has potential to exacerbate the adverse effects of urban transport, such as traffic congestion, air pollution and road accidents in residential areas. In addition, failed home deliveries (which are increasing due to recipients often not being available at home to receive parcels) increase the vehicle-kilometres travelled by consumers collecting parcels from courier depots and/or delivery-vehicle travel to redeliver parcels that were not delivered successfully. However, in European countries, delivery via collection-and-delivery points (CDPs), where consumers collect parcels from local stores (e.g. dairies), has been successful in decreasing delivery costs for couriers and increasing consumer satisfaction. Since a substantial proportion of New Zealanders currently tend to get their online orders delivered to their doorstep, CDPs might be a solution to the above-mentioned problems for consumers, couriers and the urban transport system.

CDPs have only recently become available in New Zealand and this study is aimed at investigating the acceptability and applicability of CDPs in Christchurch (New Zealand). The necessary data for the study were obtained via focus groups, online surveys and personal interviews.

Firstly, New Zealanders’ online shopping behaviour and willingness to use CDPs were investigated via qualitative content analysis. Several factors, such as CDP density, parking availability at CDPs, safe and secure places for CDPs, hours of operation of CDPs, and proximity to consumer locations, were found likely to influence consumers’ willingness to use CDPs. Secondly, the likely effect of online shopping on consumers’ shopping travel and goods’ last mile travel were studied, via an ordinal logit model. No effect was found on consumers’ shopping travel, but the goods last-mile travel was found likely to increase, as frequent online shoppers prefer home delivery and redelivery of the failed parcels. Thirdly, consumers’ choice of mode of receiving goods bought online, given the various operational features of two modes (i.e. home delivery and collection from a CDP), was analysed using stated preference data and mixed logit and latent class models. The shipping cost and risk of theft associated with both modes were found to be major factors influencing consumer choice behaviour. Other significant factors were shipment time, travel distance to CDPs, home delivery hours and CDP collection hours. Finally, the optimal number and locations for establishing CDPs in Christchurch were identified, using location-allocation models. Consumers were found to prefer supermarkets and post shops for use as CDPs. However, the location-allocation analyses revealed that dairies (i.e. convenience stores) are the most accessible potential CDP locations from consumers’ residences, which will encourage consumers to walk or cycle to CDPs to receive or return their online orders.

The study outcomes are expected to help inform transport policies (e.g. strengthening the transport infrastructure to promote active transport modes to collect parcels from CDPs), and business policies (e.g. deciding the locations for establishing CDPs), to foster sustainable growth of online shopping activities in urban areas. It should be noted, however, that the e-commerce sector is evolving rapidly, hence it is difficult to upkeep with the pace of developments taking place in this sector, and to incorporate all dimensions of a problem in a single study. For example, this study investigated consumers’ choice of using a CDP to receive/return items bought online but did not examine factors influencing courier companies’ choice of establishing CDPs. Therefore, future research should be undertaken to advance the understanding of the interaction between consumer online shopping and personal and goods transport in urban areas.