What it takes to scale same day sustainably

Ben Nowlan

CEO

Customer expectations around delivery have changed permanently.

Same day is no longer a nice-to-have. It is becoming the default. And while many retailers recognise that, far fewer have figured out how to make it work sustainably.

Because scaling same day is not just about moving faster.It is about building the right system.

One of the biggest traps retailers fall into is chasing speed in isolation. That is where you see the “waves”. Short-term initiatives, quick tech rollouts, aggressive delivery promises. They create movement. But they rarely last.

What actually scales is the “tide”. The underlying infrastructure that makes fast delivery repeatable and commercially viable. That is where the real work is.

So what does that look like in practice?

1. Designing your network for proximity, not just coverage

Same day only works when inventory is close to the customer. That means rethinking your network:

• Using stores as fulfilment centres
• Positioning inventory based on demand patterns
• Reducing distance, not just delivery time

Speed becomes much easier, and cheaper, when the product is already nearby.

2. Treating inventory visibility as a core capability

You cannot promise same day if you do not know what is actually available.

High-performing networks invest heavily in:

• Real-time inventory accuracy
• Order routing logic
• The ability to dynamically allocate orders to the best location

Without that, same day quickly turns into missed promises and poor customer experience.

3. Aligning the economics, not just the experience

One of the biggest lessons from ultra-fast delivery is that speed alone does not guarantee success.

If the unit economics do not work, it will not scale. Same day sits in a more sustainable position because:

• It meets customer expectations
• It avoids the extreme cost of ultra-fast models
• It can be supported by existing store and fulfilment networks

The goal is not maximum speed. It is repeatable, profitable speed.

4. Owning the customer experience

Marketplaces can accelerate access to same-day delivery, but they come with trade-offs.

When someone else owns the customer:

• You lose visibility
• You lose control of the experience
• You lose long-term value

The retailers scaling successfully are deliberate about this. They use marketplaces where it makes sense, but continue to invest in their own owned delivery experience. And that is exactly where global leaders have focused. They have invested over years in fulfilment networks, inventory systems and delivery orchestration.

At the Retail Fulfilment Summit this year, this shift was clear.

Retailers are not asking if they should offer same day anymore. They are asking how to build it in a way that actually works:

• Operationally
• Commercially
• At scale

If there is one takeaway, it is this: The retailers who win will not be the ones chasing speed. They will be the ones building the infrastructure that makes speed sustainable. Because same day is not just about delivering faster. It is about building a system that can keep delivering, again and again, without breaking.

At Sherpa, we work with retailers to do exactly that. We help design, build and scale same-day delivery in a way that works in the real world. If you are thinking about how to move from ambition to execution, we would love to talk.