Out of Home Delivery: Why Checkout Presence Isn’t Enough – and What the Data Shows

Out-of-home delivery is the fastest-growing segment in last-mile logistics. From parcel lockers to PUDO (pick-up and drop-off) networks, the infrastructure is expanding as carriers continue investing. And yet for most of them, OOH volumes still aren’t scaling in line with the opportunity.

The issue isn’t a lack of locations or coverage per se. Rather, it’s how they’re adopted. 

Presence at checkout isn’t enough on its own. What drives OOH volume is a set of underlying levers, such as how the option is presented and which shoppers it reaches. Carriers that grow OOH volume consistently tend to focus on the right areas first.

We look at where those levers sit, based on what we see across retailer checkouts using HubBox for OOH delivery.

At a glance (TL;DR)

• • Early momentum often comes from SMEs rather than the enterprise accounts
• • Some retail categories, such as those built around planned purchases or collection, convert far better than others
• • Being in the guest checkout doesn’t mean all shoppers see the option
• • Mobile UX plays a central role in whether shoppers follow through
• • HubBox gives carriers visibility into how shoppers actually choose delivery at checkout 

SME vs Enterprise: Where should carriers start?

If you want to drive retailer adoption, the obvious answer might be to go after the big names. Even a few enterprise accounts give you significant volumes and recognisable brands. It’s an understandable strategy, but a different approach is required to grow OOH at pace. 

Should carriers prioritise enterprise retailers or SMEs? 

Enterprise accounts take so long for a variety of reasons, including… 

• • Long sales cycles
• • Complex technical integrations
• • Compatibility challenges
• • Roadmap dependencies

It’s not uncommon for more than a year to pass between the first conversation and the go-live date. That’s not just complexity – it’s the reality of long enterprise development cycles, delayed integration starts, and competing roadmap priorities. That’s a long stretch without any volume or internal proof points needed to keep stakeholders on board. You lose momentum, and you lose it fast.

When it comes to SMEs, however, the story is a little different. They onboard six times faster than enterprise accounts and generate meaningful OOH volumes. An SME base builds scale across retailers while providing the performance data. And it’s the data which strengthens every enterprise conversation that follows.

Which retail verticals drive the most OOH delivery volume?

Not all retail categories behave the same when it comes to OOH adoption. The differences in conversion are significant enough to influence how you prioritise your SME strategy.

Do some retail verticals convert to out-of-home delivery at higher rates than others?

Yes, significantly. Our data shows that certain retail verticals consistently outperform others in the rate at which shoppers choose OOH over home delivery at checkout. The contrast between high-performing and low-performing verticals is material enough to affect a carrier’s overall volume strategy. Who you target matters as much as how many you sign when building an SME base. 

The reasons are rooted in shopper behaviour, with demographics playing a central role. Younger-facing brands bring a customer base that’s less conditioned by the expectation of home delivery and more likely to choose OOH when presented well, which makes OOH a far easier sell at checkout. 

Even without the demographics, certain categories lend themselves to OOH. Think purchases planned around collections, verticals where OOH fulfilment is already familiar or where delivery cost makes OOH the more attractive option. Other categories take longer to adopt OOH, regardless of how well the option is presented.

Having more checkouts helps, but the quality is just as important as volume. Any SME retailer you onboard now becomes the bedrock of your OOH programme and gives you insights into everything from shopper habits to proof points that lead the way in future enterprise conversations.  

Checkout presence vs shopper reach: why most OOH solutions underperform

Presence at checkout only tells part of the story. What really matters is how many shoppers see the option.

If a carrier is integrated into a retailer’s checkout, does that mean all shoppers see the out-of-home delivery option?

One of the most common misconceptions in OOH delivery is that carriers show up as an option if they’re integrated into the retailer’s guest checkout. This isn’t the case, however. 

Integrating OOH as a delivery choice requires multiple integration points to capture every customer journey through a retailer’s platform. Most solutions only cover one part. 

A standard integration into the guest checkout (the happy path) is where 99% of self-built and hosted OOH solutions stop. And while that covers the most visible journey, it typically reaches only 50% to 60% of a retailer’s actual customers. The rest are moving through different paths entirely. Without a dedicated integration for each, they won’t be offered OOH as a delivery option.

Those journeys include:

• • 1-click payment providers (Apple Pay, PayPal, Shop Pay) that complete the purchase without displaying delivery options, often defaulting to a saved home address instead.
• • Subscription services that process orders on a recurring basis and bypass the checkout selection step entirely.
• • Member login flows are capable of remembering previous delivery preferences and skipping the selection altogether.
• • Native iOS and Android apps that sit on an entirely different tech stack to browser-based solutions and require separate builds that most standard integrations don’t support.

Miss any of these, and your solution won’t perform. The problem is two-fold: Shoppers who expect an OOH option but aren’t offered it don’t default to home delivery. More importantly, they lose confidence in the experience entirely, which harms conversion rates. 

What you’re left with is lost volumes and frustrated customers at the exact point you’re trying to build an OOH habit. 

For some retailers, more than 50% of purchases happen inside their native app alone. Without a dedicated integration, shoppers never see OOH as an option, regardless of how well the carrier is integrated elsewhere. The question moves on from “are we being integrated?” to “how many customer journeys are we even reaching?”.

Where OOH Volume is won or lost with mobile UX

People are increasingly using their mobile devices to shop, with around 75% reaching for their phone to make purchases. This isn’t new news, but it does have an impact on how delivery choices are presented and selected.

How much impact does mobile UX have on out-of-home delivery volume?

Sixty-four percent of shoppers abandon OOH selection at the mobile map step when the experience is poor. The mobile map isn’t a minor UX detail either. With the swipe of a finger and a much smaller screen, users are expected to navigate complex choices in real time. It’s the single biggest hidden point of drop-off in the OOH delivery funnel and it happens after a shopper has already chosen it as their delivery option

The issue affects the majority of a carrier’s potential OOH volume at a deciding step of the selection. The issues that drive drop-off are well understood, from slow map load times and unresponsive location pins, to poor search functionality and cluttered interfaces that make it hard to identify the most convenient pickup point. Each of these is solvable, but most OOH offerings haven’t prioritised the investment.

What does it take to consistently grow OOH delivery volume?

Momentum from SMEs feeds into enterprise conversations, and targeting the right verticals improves how often shoppers choose OOH. Reaching more of the checkout journey gives that behaviour room to grow. And when the mobile experience works as it should, more of those shoppers follow through.

The HubBox solution: how we help carriers grow their out-of-home delivery volume

HubBox provides the checkout software with features that maximise shopper reach and a mobile map experience that removes friction from OOH location selection. We partner with carriers to plan and support the growth of OOH volume and constantly iterate our software to identify where OOH adoption is being lost, so we can build the solutions needed to recover it.

If you want to benchmark your current OOH delivery performance, or understand what the data shows about where your specific volume opportunity sits, get in touch with the HubBox Carrier Partner team.