Whether you’re a retail merchant, grocer, restaurant, B2B supplier, or you simply service avid shoppers and busy consumers, dealing with last-mile delivery can wear on your last nerve. Especially when what you really want to provide is same-day local deliveries without paying a premium for the “privilege” of responding to your customers’ schedules and expectations.
The problem is, today’s consumers increasingly demand faster, more affordable delivery options (think same-day or even instant delivery!) available to them, whether they are buying dinner in the neighborhood, purchasing products online, or responding to a request from a loyal business partner across town.
Younger customers, in particular, are more likely to opt for same-day or instant delivery choices over regular delivery, according to a McKinseyanalysis of market volumes and trends. Among its specific findings is that nearly 25% of customers are willing to pay more for faster delivery – for younger customers, more than 30% are – while the remaining 70% are consistently cost-conscious, always choosing the cheapest delivery option. In any case, delivery options, cost and quality are key factors by which customers evaluate their overall customer experience.
Ok, now that we’ve established that same-day delivery adds value, is it worth the costs in time, labor, capital and liability that setting up a final-mile delivery program entails? Yes and no, and here’s why:
Across the board, B2B and B2C customers want and expect dependable direct delivery to their home or office – or to any other location they choose – at the time they specify. That means, depending on the market you operate in,notoffering local same-day delivery can put you at a huge competitive disadvantage. Customers will instead choose to do business with your competitors that do offer their preferred delivery option.
At the same time, however, the cost of last-mile delivery in the US already accounts for 50% or more of total parcel delivery costs(and parcel delivery is a gigantic and growing market, with annual revenues of more than $70 billion and a growth rate approaching 10%). Creating your own delivery team is even more costly, making it prohibitively expensive for most companies, especially once you factor in recruiting, vetting, hiring, training and insuring drivers; providing and maintaining vehicles; and creating dispatch, tracking and other operational systems.
Last-mile delivery is a strategic dilemma for anyone trying to build a brand or capture (or even maintain) market share, but it doesn’t have to be that way. There’s simply no reason for the last leg of the trip to cost an arm and a leg.
Using crowd-sourced delivery technologies, e-commerce and brick-and-mortar businesses alike can deliver an outstanding customer experience without incurring the risk or expense of hiring staff, building a proprietary program or paying the price of using national carriers. When you become part of DeliveryCircle, you’re able to consistently deliver great value along with your customers’ packages – at the market’s most reasonable rates.
Whether you’re delivering in a small town or the big city, that’s a service distinction that sets you apart.
DeliveryCircle offers same-day deliveries at next-day prices. The company’s on-demand platform offers crowd-sourced deliveries from carefully vetted and trained drivers. Shoppers get their purchases delivered quickly at a reasonable cost. Merchants take customer relationships to a new and deeper level and differentiate themselves from competitors by offering free (or low-cost) delivery to customers without the capital investment of developing their own local delivery services.
