What can a pizza shop teach us about the dramatic shifts taking place in consumer marketing? Quite a lot. New research on pizza delivery suggests that consumer impatience has become a powerful force in purchasing decisions—so powerful that delivery speed can sometimes outweigh location, price, and quality. Although the study focused on pizza, its findings have important implications for business-to-consumer firms across many industries.

Published in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science, the study examined how faster delivery influences consumer choice and competition. The researchers found that impatience, or consumers’ desire to receive products quickly, reduces comparison shopping and substitution among sellers. It can also soften price competition and allow lower-quality providers to remain viable in the market.

These findings challenge the conventional assumption that faster delivery gives consumers more choices and intensifies competition. Instead, delivery speed can actually fragment markets by encouraging consumers to choose whichever seller can reach them fastest rather than searching more broadly for better prices or higher quality.

The researchers analysed nearly 98,000 pizza-delivery orders placed by more than 6,800 consumers across 51 independently owned pizzerias in a major Northern Italian city between 2010 and 2011. The study was conducted by Chaewon Seol and Federico Rossi of Purdue University, Sara Valentini of Bocconi University, and Elisa Montaguti of the University of Bologna.

The results reveal just how much consumers value their time. For the median consumer, a 50% reduction in delivery time was worth more than 20% of the order price. This willingness to pay for speed can significantly limit competition because consumers may favour the fastest seller rather than comparing prices, quality, or other alternatives.

However, major technological improvements in delivery can change this pattern. When delivery times fall substantially across the market, proximity becomes less important. Higher-quality businesses can then reach customers who previously might have chosen a nearby, lower-quality competitor simply because it offered faster delivery. As a result, higher-quality firms gain market share while some lower- and mid-quality providers exit.

The research also highlights opportunities for online platforms to monetise consumers’ impatience. The researchers found that offering a premium service with delivery that is 10% faster, for an additional fee equal to 10% of the basic menu price, could increase platform profits by 18.7%. For platforms and marketing decision-makers, delivery speed therefore represents more than an operational issue—it can become an important element of pricing and competitive strategy.

While pizza provided the setting for this research, the implications extend far beyond foodservice. From groceries and household products to clothing and other online purchases, businesses increasingly compete not only on price and quality but also on how quickly they can put products into customers’ hands. The study suggests that consumer impatience can reshape how people compare sellers, how businesses compete, and which firms succeed. In an increasingly delivery-driven economy, understanding the value consumers place on speed may be essential to understanding the future of consumer marketing.

More information: Chaewon Seol et al, Consumer Impatience, Technological Innovation, and Market Structure, Marketing Science. DOI: 10.1287/mksc.2024.0885

Journal information: Marketing Science Provided by Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences