Lunch & Learn with Visiting Scholar Paul Buijs
October 29 at 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
From “I can wait” to impact: Turning consumer patience into more sustainable ecommerce delivery
Presented by Paul Buijs, Visiting Scholar, Urban Freight Lab, and Associate Professor, University of Groningen (Netherlands)
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
12 noon – 1 p.m.
More Hall, Room 110
RSVP required.
Abstract: Do we really need every online order tomorrow, or even today? Often not. Many consumers are willing to accept later delivery when it the option is presented well. This talk explores how that flexibility can be turned into measurable sustainability gains.
This presentation shares ongoing empirical work that quantifies willingness to wait: how many people will delay, by how much, and under what conditions. We test communication strategies and choice architecture to see what actually persuades consumers.
Second, I discuss modeling of what e-commerce sellers and delivery companies can do with the extra time: smoothing workloads across days, concentrating stops to increase delivery density, or skipping low-yield routes. Each lever has distinct effects on distance traveled, fleet use, and emissions.
Finally, I connect consumer behavior with operational strategies to estimate the realizable potential under different contexts. We close with practical playbooks for e-commerce sellers, delivery companies, and cities on how to design checkout choices and delivery policies that translate “I can wait” into a more sustainable last mile.