In today’s retail landscape, online shopping has become embedded in consumers’ consumption patterns, fundamentally transforming how goods are obtained by allowing consumers to shop from the comfort of their homes and receive purchases directly at their doorstep. This has also resulted in more fragmented logistics flows and increased pressure on last mile activities. Considering that transport still represents a major cause of climate change and other externalities on the environment and society, this growth poses a significant challenge. In response, numerous sustainability initiatives have emerged across technological, operational and policy domains, contributing to improvements in last mile delivery. Yet, the potential sustainability gains of these initiatives also depend on consumers’ delivery choices. Until now, consumers tend to prioritise aspects such as speed, convenience and price. This could potentially conflict with sustainability objectives. Additionally, sustainability information often remains limited or insufficiently visible to consumers during the delivery selection process. This result in that currently, the extent to which consumers value information on sustainability and the role they can play in making the last mile more sustainable remains unclear.
For this reason, this dissertation explores ways to encourage consumers to opt for more sustainable last-mile delivery options. The findings show that a pro-sustainable attitude is not a strong predictor of sustainable delivery choices. Moreover, they also indicate that many consumers have a neutral attitude toward sustainability in the last mile. Nevertheless, interventions aimed at encouraging more sustainable choices, especially when financial incentives or clear sustainability cues are use, work. Yet, the overall impact of sustainability information is modest, as delivery choices are characterized by price-convenience trade-offs. The outcomes also identify different consumer segments that respond differently to sustainability by exhibiting different trade-offs between price, convenience and sustainability. This implies that, rather than relying only on raising awareness, strategies that account for consumer trade-offs and segment-specific preferences are important to encourage more sustainable delivery choices.