Same-Day Express Delivery: 4 Essential Tips
To help you on this journey, let’s take a look at the 4 things to consider when offering same-day express delivery:
- Choose the right products and target group for same-day express delivery
- Think Local
- Your stores are mini-warehouses
- Certainty beats speed
Not every product or segment lends itself equally well to lightning-fast delivery. A smartphone case, a rug for the couch, a new record player: these are products that a customer typically doesn’t mind waiting a day, or sometimes even longer, for. But a bouquet of flowers, baby formula or a laptop-to-projector cable; sometimes you really need it, like, now. As an online retailer, it’s advisable to take a good look at which products in your range are suitable for fast delivery, paying specific attention to urgency. The selection should also consider the weight, size (can it be delivered by bike courier?) and the speed with which the product can be picked and packed. Particularly in fashion and small consumer electronics the service is increasingly popular. Furthermore, a survey by the Boston Consulting Group has revealed that the consumers most interested in same-day express delivery are the so-called affluent millennials: young adults between 18 and 34 years of age with an above-average income, often living in major cities. If you recognize your target group, then think extra hard about the service you’re willing to offer them.
Delivery from Groningen to Maastricht on the day of ordering? It’s not impossible, but it is very expensive. Many online retailers therefore limit their same-day express offer to a smaller, densely populated area. Bookstore Schelteman, for example, delivers same-day express within the ring of Amsterdam. Also interesting: many of these online retailers use their own staff and delivery on a local scale for same-day express deliveries, as demonstrated recently by Rituals.
As an extension of a localized mindset, more retailers should consider their retail stores as distribution centers. Even former Walmart e-commerce CEO, Neil Ashe, noticed this back in 2016, “We can use our 4000 stores as a physical distribution point. We have stores in the US within 5 miles of about two-third of the population”. By showing the stock of each branch to online customers, and picking the ordered products directly from the store stock, local same-day express delivery not only becomes feasible, it also becomes affordable. This way a bike courier can deliver affordably within the entire ring of Amsterdam for example. This type of cost can absolutely compete with those of the national parcel carriers.
Your customers don’t (only) like speed. Above all, they like certainty. Coincidentally, the additional advantage of same-day express delivery is that everyone knows what the planning of their day looks like. But, don’t just focus on speed. Just like with your ‘regular’ delivery options, being able to choose from periods of time is at least as important as delivery speed. Chances are, for example, that your customer will value delivery on the same evening between 18:00 and 19:00 for example, more than delivery within the next hour.
Although same-day express delivery accounted for approximately 249 million packages shipped in the USA in 2018, it is still largely a niche product that is only likely to work for specific products, when you are able to have a very clear overview of your inventory. With that being said, in the current (uncertain) e-commerce climate, having the ability to use your physical stores as mini DC’s to move stock is also a valuable insurance policy to have in place, especially if another lockdown period should arrive.
Paazl is the platform for quality delivery in e-commerce.
Paazl delivers more satisfied and engaged customers for your brand and helps your business grow globally.
We enable you to create the best delivery experience possible.
Contact us and we will be happy to tell you more about how we’re powering the promise that brands like G-Star RAW, TAG Heuer, Under Armour, VanMoof and Rituals make to their customers.