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How fast can retail delivery get? As consumers become more demanding, fashion retailers and brands are embracing same-day delivery services, but not many have attempted a 90-minute promise. A new on-demand app launched in London is the latest to try.
Startup Need It For Tonight (NIFT) arranges bike courier deliveries from fashion stores, and allows customers to track their orders in real-time. The app guarantees delivery within 90 minutes, if not less. “We chose 90 minutes and under to align with the convenience of on-demand food delivery apps, ensuring that the customer is at home to minimise the risk of missed deliveries,” says Simone Oloman, who was previously retail lead at AI startup Futr and co-founded NIFT with her sister Roxanne, who has a background in fintech. The app launched last month with 15 partners — including Scandi womenswear multi-brand boutique Wild Swans and designer Rejina Pyo’s London store — and plans to announce 35 more over the summer.
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The goal, Simone says, is to help hard-pressed bricks-and-mortar stores by enabling them to keep up with digital pure players. “We aim to create a new and relevant marketplace by supporting and giving exposure to independent and local high-end brands.”
The appeal for customers is clear. However, these delivery models can be expensive and complex to offer. There is a risk of cutting corners on service quality to achieve speed, experts say. Teaching consumers to expect ultra-fast delivery also has ramifications for the environment and critics say there’s little need for it in fashion, unlike in industries like food.
There are a few scattered examples of ultra-fast delivery in fashion and beauty. Farfetch took a step in this direction back in 2017 with the launch of F90, a 90-minute delivery service. It was originally developed in partnership with Gucci, though over time the service broadened out to include other brand partners and boutiques across cities such as New York, London, Paris, Milan and Los Angeles.
In New York and Los Angeles, a service named FastAF launched in late 2020 promises to deliver premium beauty and health products in under two hours. Its model relies on purchasing the products directly from the brands and stocking them in warehouses located in city centres. (FastAF and Farfetch declined to comment on the uptake of their services for this article.)
While holding stock is higher risk, the model gives FastAF an accurate and real-time view of stock levels. “Models like this ensure you have visibility of your stock at all times. Not having a tight inventory process for fulfilment can cost you money if sizes or certain products appear to be out of stock,” says Gary Barraco, assistant VP of product marketing at supply chain platform E2open. By contrast, NIFT directly fulfils from stores — requiring seamless integration with the retailers’ systems.
“We have a tech-agnostic plugin that integrates with whichever system a retailer is using such as Shopify, Squarespace or Wix,” says NIFT’s Simone. NIFT has leveraged this technology to display real-time stock levels. When a product is sold on NIFT, the retailer’s website updates, and vice versa when a sale occurs directly through the website, the app reflects the change. “With this technology, we can gather various analytics, such as identifying the most popular products through the app,” she adds. In the future, the sisters plan to use these customer insights to help build a personalised experience for users.
A complex task
Customer expectations are changing. Nearly one third of Brits now expect same-day delivery, according to research from software firm Loqate and market research company Censuswide. Fashion retailers are responding: in the UK, Marks Spencer launched same-day clothing delivery in 2021 — taking advantage of its large network of stores. Digital pureplay Asos followed suit, partnering with parcel delivery firm Hived to provide same-day delivery to customers across Greater London. Net-a-Porter has provided a same-day delivery service for its top customers since 2017.
“The pandemic has fundamentally transformed the way people approach purchasing,” explains E2open’s Barraco. Consumers have become accustomed to contactless delivery options and have increasingly relied on technology, particularly their mobile phones, to access services and products. “Everyone now always has a device on them and the on-demand model is just an extension of the digital device.”
“We often get customers calling us to ask if we can deliver a product by the next morning. It’s not something we can provide on our own,” says Amanda Bell, e-commerce manager at NIFT partner Wild Swans. As an independent retailer with only two stores in London, it hopes to tap into a larger customer base through the discovery element of appearing on NIFT’s app. “Customers can view shops [on the app] that they would not have come across before, the same way you would find your favourite new takeaway spot when you order through Deliveroo.”
Whether NIFT can scale remains to be seen. There are a number of challenges to overcome, says Barraco. When contracting delivery personnel from third-party companies, maintaining a consistent service becomes a complex task. Security emerges as another concern, as delivery riders or drivers have access to customer details. Companies offering these services must effectively screen these third-party companies to guarantee the appropriate level of security, he says.
He emphasises the importance of establishing and upholding service level agreements to ensure consistent service quality. Addressing these challenges can come at a substantial cost, necessitating a careful evaluation of profit margins to determine viability. (NIFT charges a flat fee of £7.99 for each delivery or users can opt for a subscription model — four deliveries per month for £23.99, or an annual plan costing £149.99.)
The NIFT app provides customers with a unique code that must be provided to the rider for the delivery to be completed “for security and quality purposes”, says NIFT’s Simone. She adds that it prevents an order being delivered to a neighbour or left in an inconvenient place. In the future, NIFT aims to onboard a team of in-house full-time riders.
Speed vs control
Speed isn’t everything. Sojin Lee, who founded LVMH Innovation Prize-winning “wait and try” luxury delivery service Toshi in London in 2017, acknowledges the appeal of ultra-fast delivery. However, she also emphasises the importance of offering customers flexibility and control to achieve higher satisfaction levels and maintain a premium service.
“The customer should have the discretion to choose the delivery time or day, and they should have more transparency regarding the one-hour delivery window. If they need to reschedule the delivery, it should be their choice because it’s about their lifestyle,” she says.
Toshi works with luxury brands such as Gucci, Chanel, and Louis Vuitton to extend the exclusive in-store experience to the customer’s home. It operates a team of trained customer service agents, who hand deliver items. The customer can choose a one-hour time slot of their choice, from same-day up to 14 days, with the earliest one-hour slot depending on the location of the stock and the customer address.
For NIFT, giving users the ability to track their parcels in real time — in a similar way to courier services such as Gophr — is as important as the short timeframe, says NIFT’s Simone. “Frustrations with delivery tend to dominate customer queries. They want to know about the whereabouts of their orders and understand the reasons for any delays,” she says.
The service is limited to store opening hours but the Olomans say this is offset by the flexibility of its on-demand model. “While other businesses may offer same-day delivery, customers often have to place their orders before a specific time to guarantee same-day arrival — and the delivery is typically made later in the evening,” says Roxanne.
Fast fashion and express delivery have both faced intense criticism for their damaging impact on the environment. Even resale has come under fire for perpetuating a culture of chasing newness and buying for events rather than longer-term use.
Harriet Vocking, chief brand officer at sustainability consultancy Eco-Age, commends NIFT’s use of bikes and the ambition to support local businesses. However, she says any 90-minute delivery promise is “problematic” as it could fuel impulse purchasing. “It adds to the instant gratification culture that we have at the moment. Fast fashion is not good in any form as it encourages a sense of disposability.”
The Olomans recognise the concerns, but argue that their model does not promote fast fashion — rather, they say, it helps more responsible fashion brands and retailers to remain in business. “Given the nature of the brands we’re partnered with, their customers tend to be more conscious of their spending habits in comparison to impulse fast fashion customers,” says Simone. She adds that NIFT has invested in real-time delivery tracking on its app to reduce the likelihood of missed deliveries. This, as well as encouraging customers to support local businesses rather than buying from national retailers who fulfil from warehouses hundreds of miles away, “can contribute to reducing journey-based emissions”, she argues. In the next two months, NIFT plans to launch the option to order rental items for 90-minute delivery.
Simone is confident the app can succeed despite the challenges. “We’re going to be scaling with lots of different brands, and we have a long technical roadmap ahead with newer features coming soon.”
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