Growing demand for free and convenient delivery of online purchases is driving online retailers and delivery services to seek a wider range of delivery methods.

A new report by yStats.com reveals shoppers want varied delivery options such as delivery at a nominated time, pick-up in-store or delivery to a third location.

Another trend is that retailers are developing and strengthening their own delivery networks, moving fulfillment centres closer to customers and increasing delivery from nearby stores rather than logistics centres where possible, it says.

In Asia, particularly, online shoppers give more importance to speed of delivery. Fast delivery was an important criteria for choosing an online shop for nearly 20 per cent of online shoppers in Japan in 2012. A third of online shoppers waited for three days for their online purchase to arrive, while a slightly larger share waited for around week at one point last year. The majority of online shoppers in Japan would like to have the option to specify delivery hours and to choose the delivery day.

In South Korea, B2C e-commerce delivery is one of the major fields for intense competition in online retail. The majority of B2C e-commerce orders were delivered door-to-door last year, nearly all by couriers, as postal services accounted for less than one per cent.

Competition on the fast growing B2C e-commerce delivery market in China is fierce, involving local and international operators and retailers, who fight for offering more options and faster delivery times. In September 2013, a high double-digit share of online shoppers in China regarded free shipping as the major factor in B2C e-commerce delivery.

In other Asian nations, several large online merchants launched same day delivery in India early this year despite the undeveloped logistics infrastructure.

In Indonesia, less than 20 per cent of online shoppers have received free delivery of goods purchased online, while in Singapore this share was higher than one third.