Conference Agenda

The rapid growth of e-commerce has indicated the importance of last-mile delivery as a key determinant of customer satisfaction and competitive advantage. At the same time, last-mile logistics are among the most costly and environmentally impactful components of online retail operations. While retailers increasingly invest in sustainability initiatives to reduce delivery-related emissions, many of these measures require customers to accept lower levels of service convenience, such as longer delivery lead times or increased delivery flexibility. Consequently, the success of sustainable logistics strategies depends not only on operational feasibility but also on consumer acceptance. This research investigates how sustainability communication and economic incentives influence customers’ willingness to adjust their delivery time to support environmentally friendly delivery options in the online grocery sector. Assessing on a large-scale choice-based conjoint experiment involving 1500 U.S. online grocery shoppers on Prolific Academic in Jan 2026 (pre-register at AsPredicted: https://aspredicted.org/xd6w3j.pdf), the study examines trade-offs consumers make between delivery time window, discount incentives, and notification lead time. Participants were randomly assigned to either a generic delivery scenario or a sustainability-focused communication scenario that explicitly explained the environmental benefits of delivery adjustments. Individual preferences were estimated using Hierarchical Bayes methods, enabling the identification of heterogeneous responses to sustainability initiatives. Beyond understanding consumer behavior, our study also integrates customer preference data into a vehicle routing optimization model. Individual-level utility estimates are incorporated into sequential decision process models to evaluate the impact of customer choice on economic and ecological consequences of shifting demand toward more flexible delivery schedules. This integrated approach allows the assessment of potential reductions in logistics costs and CO₂ emissions under alternative combinations of sustainability communication and incentive schemes. Preliminary results indicate that financial incentives remain the strongest driver of customer choice; however, sustainability-focused communication significantly increases consumers’ willingness to accept delivery-time adjustments. The findings suggest that carefully designed communication strategies can enhance customer participation in sustainable logistics programs while reducing the need for costly incentives. The optimization analysis will further quantify the extent to which consumer trade-offs can contribute to more efficient route consolidation and lower environmental impacts. In conclusion, by linking targeted marketing messages with logistics optimization, this research contributes to the literature on sustainable logistics and last-mile delivery. The study offers actionable insights for online retailers seeking to balance customer service, operational efficiency, and environmental responsibility in increasingly competitive e-commerce markets.