Same-day local delivery typically costs $12 to $35 per order depending on distance, size and window. It pays for itself when the incremental conversion lift plus the reduction in cancelled orders exceeds that cost — which for most retailers happens on baskets above roughly $120, and much sooner on bulky items that would otherwise ship LTL.
The instinct is to treat same-day delivery as a cost line. The retailers who get the most out of it treat it as a conversion line, and model it accordingly.
The cost side
Per-delivery pricing depends on distance, item size and how tight the promise is. A small parcel going five miles on an end-of-day window sits at the bottom of the range. A 200-pound appliance going 40 miles in a two-hour window sits at the top. Most retailers see a blended cost between $14 and $22.
The revenue side
Three effects show up in the data. Cart conversion rises when a same-day option appears at checkout, particularly on considered purchases. Cancellation and ‘where is my order’ contacts fall because the delivery window is short and tracked. And for bulky goods, same-day local delivery often replaces an LTL shipment that cost more and took four days.
Modelling the break-even
Take your current conversion rate on the category, apply a conservative lift, multiply by margin per order, and compare to blended delivery cost times the share of orders that choose same-day. Most retailers find the break-even sits around a $120 basket, and that bulky categories break even far below that because of the freight cost being displaced.
Where it does not pay
Low-margin, low-basket categories where the customer has no urgency. If nobody is choosing same-day at checkout, the problem is usually that it is priced as a premium rather than bundled into a threshold — free same-day above a basket value converts far better than a $15 line item.
Key facts at a glance
- Typical cost per same-day delivery
- $12–$35
- Blended cost most retailers see
- $14–$22
- Common break-even basket size
- Around $120
- Fastest window available
- 2 hours
- Maximum item weight
- 300 pounds
