Ordering from Galaxus, a mystery of logistics

Like many people my age, I like to do quite a bit of my shopping online. I think it’s convenient and for lots of stuff it is much simpler, especially if you want to get something a bit more specialised. And thanks to modern technology, this works quite well. But recently, I found a bit of a mystery.

Online shopping in Switzerland

In Switzerland, we have our own online shops. Instead of Amazon, we have multiple options. Probably the largest, and the one I use most, is Galaxus. It started as Digitec for digital stuff online and has since expanded to pretty much anything. Normally, everything works quite well with the online shops in Switzerland, as the Swiss postal service will deliver parcels to anywhere in Switzerland for the next day. That is super convenient and very reliable.

And a such, we are quite used to this great service. I think (but I have no proof for this general statement), that most people expect online shops to deliver by the next day. In fact, my online shop, Galaxus introduced same-day delivery in the large parts of Switzerland (mostly the big cities). This was introduced first in Zurich, which meant I was able to use it from the very beginning. As illustrated by the image below, they cover most of the metropolitan areas in Switzerland.

Slower deliveries

Galaxus at some point also introduced slower delivers. The slower deliveries were introduced as a measure to make their logistics a bit less stressed. Since I rarely needed something the same or the very next day, I was quite intrigued by this idea and started to active it for most of my orders.

But then I noticed something. The promise was simple, and I assumed that it would be easy enough.

But somehow, the non slower delivery they manage to stick to the next day, at least in my experience, very well. Nevertheless, as soon as I activate the slower deliveries, it is mostly much more than just 1–2 days extra. In fact, my two latest deliveries were three and four days¹ later than they would normally arrive.

Let’s be apparent, since I have activated the slower option, I’m not concerned about the delivery being on time, but it is interesting to me, and I wonder how and why this keeps happening. So far, I have noticed a couple of things:

1. The orders where you activate the slow delivery get sent as Economy parcels, while the default is priority. So it seems that Galaxus is not only reducing the logistical strain with their slower option, but also saving a bit of money. Now I’m sure Galaxus, with the sheer volume of parcels they send, has a special deal with the Swiss postal service and don’t pay list price. But for run-of-the-mill business customers, that would be about a two Swiss franc difference on every parcel you send.
2. The slower deliveries don’t get the postal extra Saturday delivery service. Again, as a normal business, this is another CHF 3.80 that they are saving. Of course, I’m sure they have a special deal, but they are probably saving another bit of money. This means parcels which would arrive on Thursday or Friday will then not be delivered on Saturday, but rather on Monday.
3. For the slower delivery, they seem to leave the Galaxus logistics centre at the last moment possible, often after the post services cutoff for that day. As such, it adds an extra day, while technically leaving the Galaxus centre at the right time.

So what?

So while I’m not concerned with my deliveries being quite a bit later, even later than the promise for their slower delivery, it does feel a bit unjust that they are also using this to save some money. Especially when considering that the slower delivery is not cheaper or anything, in fact, the delivery stays as calculated into the price as before. But yeah, I mean, it is up to everyone themselves if they want to activate the slower option or not.

And I’m eagerly awaiting the parcel I expect to receive today. It contains a weather station, and will be one of my first smart home devices that uses thread (instead of Zigbee).

Update at 19:06: The parcel has indeed arrived today.