On demand delivery can be described as anything faster than same day. Outside of food and drinks, and depending on the platform and location of the order, on demand deliveries are typically made within three hours.
❝On demand saw a huge 320% increase in orders between 2023 and 2024, highlighting a dramatic rise in demand for ultra-fast delivery options like Uber Direct. This growth reaffirms that consumers are willing to pay a premium for immediacy and convenience.❞
📚 Read more in the State of Shipping report
This article covers what on demand delivery involves, and what you need to do get set up. It also discusses the major on demand carriers available.
For more information about how carriers are allocated based on the service level you require, see the carrier allocation article.
For a list of which carriers offer which service level, see the carrier matrix on the Shippit website.
What is on demand delivery
Standard delivery is two or more business days, express delivery is usually next day, and same day is usually within eight hours. By definition, on demand delivery is anything faster than same day. For food and drinks, this is sometimes within an hour, but for most other products it's usually within three hours.
💡NOTE: On demand delivery is sometimes also called q-commerce, or quick commerce.
To make this work, on demand delivery doesn’t go through the same collection and bulk sorting process as standard and express delivery services. While some more traditional carriers also now offer on demand services, the most well known on demand carriers crowd source drivers for deliveries.
Besides catering to customers' desire for ultra-fast delivery, on-demand delivery is also affordable, thanks to low overheads. It’s also transparent, allowing you and your customers to see exactly when an order is picked up and on its way, so they can be waiting at the door when it is delivered.
Get started with on demand delivery
If you're thinking about offering on demand delivery, here are the things you need to do to get set up with on demand on Shippit.
The first step is to pick a carrier to partner with. The easiest way to do this is to choose a Shippit integrated carrier and take advantage of our negotiated rates. However, if you already have an existing agreement with an on demand provider, you can integrate your own account with Shippit. For an up to date list of carriers that support on demand delivery, see the carrier matrix on the Shippit website.
Consider how you want to integrate on demand delivery into your online checkout. You might need to change or introduce internal processes on the fulfilment side to allow this. If you use Shopify and Uber, you can turn on scheduled deliveries. For more information about scheduled deliveries, see the Shopify integration article.
Plan how to communicate your new on demand delivery option with your customers. Make sure your messaging on this is clear: depending on the size and location of your delivery partner's network, as well as your own business, your delivery area might be limited. If you have a national network of brick-and-mortar stores and can ship from store, you can probably offer on demand delivery in metro areas across the country. If you’re online-only, you might be restricted to the city where your warehouse is based.
Best practice for on demand operations
Pack and label promptly: On demand deliveries are time-critical. To avoid futile or wait-time charges when the driver arrives, ensure goods are ready within your preparation time window, which defaults to 60 minutes. You can adjust this in your Shippit account by going to Settings → Store → General and scrolling down to the Preparation time section.
Prioritise on demand orders: Review your pick and pack process to ensure on demand orders are prioritised over other orders.
Ensure carriers can access your parcels easily: Once packed, make sure the parcel is labelled and left in a place that can be easily reached by the driver. If possible, keep a parking spot near your loading dock or pick-up area available for easy collection.
On demand carriers
This section contains an overview of the major on demand carriers. For more information about the carriers that Shippit supports, see the Carrier information collection, or get in touch with your Shippit account manager.
Uber Direct
Uber Direct enables merchants to offer local delivery for orders placed on their own sales channels using Uber’s global network of delivery people.
Shippit’s on demand deliveries with Uber are made directly from your store to your customer, within a 20 kilometre radius.
Now accepting goods up to:
20 kg dead weight
Cubic dimensions up to 2 m³ (approx. 175 x 130 x 90 cm)
1.75 metres in length
Up to 8 items at a time
To learn more about Uber Direct, see our Get to know Uber article.
DoorDash
DoorDash reaches over 85% of Australia’s population through its driver network offering retailers an instant-delivery solution for consumers.
Shippit gives you access to both same day & on demand delivery options catering for a vast range of freight, including:
Beauty and makeup
Clothing & Apparel
Footwear & fashion accessories
Small homewares
Pharmaceuticals up to and including schedule 4
Groceries, including items requiring cold chain compliance
Alcohol
Take advantage of Shippit's partner rates to get fast access to DoorDash delivery. To learn more about DoorDash, see our Get to know Doordash article.
Sherpa
Partnering with Shippit, Sherpa helps businesses provide a quick last-mile delivery service to our customers and is ideal for those clients wanting to offer fast delivery within a matter of hours.
The service levels are:
Priority same day
On demand within two hours
On demand within four hours
Take advantage of Shippit's partner rates to get fast access to Sherpa delivery. For more information about Sherpa, see our Get to know Sherpa article.
Australia Post OnDemand
Australia Post OnDemand allows you to have parcels delivered by the end of the day, after hours, or on Saturdays.
The service levels are:
Australia Post OnDemand Afternoon, for delivery same day between 1pm and 5pm
Australia Post OnDemand Tonight, for delivery after hours
Australia Post OnDemand Saturday, for delivery on Saturdays
Connect your Australia Post account through Shippit. For more information about Australia Post On Demand, see our Get to know Australia Post OnDemand article.
You can also integrate Australia Post OnDemand using the Shippit APIs, however there are some important differences to take note of. For more information about integrating Australia Post OnDemand with the Shippit APIs, see the Developer guide in the Shippit Developer centre.