The future of eCommerce depends on efficient local delivery. As consumer expectations shift towards faster and more flexible fulfillment, local delivery is becoming the key differentiator for eCommerce businesses. When customers are opting for same-day, two-day, and even on-demand deliveries, eCommerce businesses must adapt to stay competitive.
Leveraging local warehouses, optimising last-mile logistics, and incorporating real-time route planning technologies enable them to meet customer demands without incurring unsustainable costs. eCommerce brands can provide enhanced customer experiences by investing in local delivery solutions. At the same time, they can ensure operational efficiency, making it an important strategy for business growth in the future.
This blog explores local delivery in detail, its benefits, challenges, and more.
What Is Local Delivery?
Local delivery is the process of transporting goods to a nearby remote destination within a given geographical area. This can include a particular region or city. Local delivery is often used for same-day, next-day, and on-demand deliveries. Local delivery apps can work as an alternative to in-store shopping and shipping. It enables customers to purchase from an online store or marketplace and have those items delivered to their doorstep, usually within a short time.
Here’s how it works:
- A customer places an order with a local retailer, usually operating online
- The local retailer partners with a local delivery service to pick up the customer’s order and deliver it to their home
- The customer receives the order typically within a few hours or a couple of days
The Business Benefits of Offering Local Delivery
Let’s look at the major benefits of local delivery services.
- Increased sales
With local delivery, eCommerce business can reach a wider audience, even if it’s just within a particular city. Customers want their orders to be delivered as early as possible. Local delivery services make it easier for customers to receive their orders.
You can also target customers within closer proximity, further increasing sales.
- Cost savings
Local deliveries are comparatively cheaper than long-distance deliveries. They use less fuel and other resources. Since shorter distances are involved, it’s more affordable not only for eCommerce businesses but also for customers.
Small and medium-level eCommerce businesses often operate on lower budgets and resources. It becomes essential that they find ways to minimise costs wherever possible.
The need for larger retail spaces is also eliminated, reducing overhead costs. You can also prioritise important orders to increase revenue and reduce the impact of failed deliveries.
Shorter distances also make local delivery a more environmentally friendly option. It can help reduce carbon emissions and support sustainability.
- Offer a better shopping experience
Local delivery is faster compared to traditional methods. Offering your customers the option to receive their orders just within a couple of hours can significantly enhance their shopping experience.
You should focus on providing accurate estimated delivery times, convenient delivery windows, real-time updates, clear communication, flexible delivery options, and more. Actively gathering your customers’ feedback can help you improve services based on their preferences. In any case, you should prioritise timely deliveries and transparency throughout the process.
- Flexible delivery options
Partnering with local delivery services enables you to offer flexible delivery options, helping you retain existing customers. You give your customers more delivery options to choose from, whether it’s same delivery, next-day delivery, etc. This, in turn, further improves your customers’ shopping experiences.
- Support and growth opportunities for local businesses
One of the biggest benefits of local delivery is that it supports the growth of local businesses. Your customers appreciate the ease and convenience of shopping online from local brands because they can deliver their orders to their doorstep within a short time. This helps local business expand their business operations.
Overcoming Common Local Delivery Challenges
First, let’s look at the major challenges facing local delivery.
- Delivery delays
One of the biggest challenges of local delivery is delayed deliveries. Indeed, there can be a variety of reasons for these delays. For example, factors such as traffic, congestion, incorrect addresses, road accidents, unfamiliar destinations, and poor scheduling can all contribute. Consequently, delayed deliveries can cause customer frustration, harm your brand’s reputation, and increase customer churn.
- Lack of visibility
Limited or complete lack of visibility into delivery routes, traffic conditions, etc., can make it difficult to predict accurate delivery times. Customers want to track their orders and know when they’ll arrive. Lack of visibility can further increase customer frustration, harming your business.
- Route planning
If you haven’t planned the route right, it can delay deliveries. Customers might even cancel their orders and you may have to incur additional costs.
- Technology integration
You may want to implement advanced technological solutions like route optimisation or real-time tracking software. However, these can be expensive and even face resistance within the organisation.
- Increased competition
New businesses are continuously entering this space. More businesses are expanding their operations to cater to customers’ demand for quick and reliable local deliveries. Unless your business finds a way to stand out among its competitors, it may be challenging to survive in a competitive landscape. You may even end up losing customers to your competitors.
- Improper packaging and damaged goods
Customers receiving damaged and incorrect goods is one of the biggest drawbacks of offering instant local deliveries. Consequently, in a race to deliver goods within a few minutes of customers placing an order, items aren’t always properly packaged. As a result, improper packaging leads to breakage, spoilage, and other forms of in-transit damage. Ultimately, damaged goods harm your business’s reputation and can even cost you money.
- Rising shipping costs
You’ll have to maintain competitive shipping rates while generating profits at the same time. If delivery charges are too high, your customers may switch over to your competitors, especially if they’re offering free delivery.
Now, let’s explore some strategies to improve local delivery.
- Optimise delivery routes
Plan your delivery routes effectively. You can use route planning and optimisation software. It can help you minimise the time delivery agents spend on the road, saving you money and improving customer satisfaction.
Route optimisation software uses traffic information, road congestion, delivery priorities, etc., to calculate and find the most efficient delivery routes. Its real-time features enable you to plan routes, provide accurate delivery times to customers, prevent drivers from going off-routes, and monitor the current location of the goods. You can also reduce travel time, minimise fuel costs, and increase delivery efficiency by optimising delivery routes with route optimisation software.
- Offer multiple delivery options
You can give your customers multiple delivery options to choose from. These can include instant delivery, same-day delivery, next-day delivery, on-demand delivery, etc. When customers can choose the delivery time and location that works best for them, it improves their shopping experience and satisfaction.
- Set up the return management process
Create a streamlined order return (and refund) management process. This process should be easy for your team and customers to understand. When your returns management process is seamless and stress-free, customers realise that your business is willing to go the extra mile to help them save time. It fosters customer trust and brand loyalty, improving the chances of a future purchase from your eCommerce brand.
- Use automation
You can automate repetitive manual tasks. It’ll help you reduce manual errors, improve delivery times, increase operational efficiency, and create a seamless fulfillment process.
- Prioritise orders
Prioritizing orders can help you deliver more orders faster, save time and money, improve delivery agents’ experience, boost delivery efficiency, and enhance your customers’ shopping experience. For instance, you can prioritize orders based on location, date, and time.
- Use inventory management software
Lastly, you should use inventory management software. It can help you reduce inventory-related costs. You can optimise inventory levels and minimise excess stock. It can also help you improve demand forecasting by analysing historical data. Eventually, you can fulfill orders accurately and on time.
The Future Landscape of Local Delivery
Here are some trends that will shape the future of local delivery.
- The industry will witness the entry of major eCommerce players. They’ll build an ecosystem primarily with an app-based local delivery service.
- Some online retailers may extend local delivery services to offer non-essential products, such as cosmetics, apparel, liquor, etc.
- Local delivery services will expand to two-tier and three-tier cities and rural areas.
- Retail outlets are more likely to expand their storage spaces and capacities near their physical stores. It’ll help them fulfill omnichannel customer demands.
- More local businesses will adopt and use artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies, including blockchain, to ensure a streamlined and secure delivery process and expand their operations.
- Local delivery services may even use drones for making air deliveries in a particular geographical area.
Fast Local Delivery: Achieving Reliable Speed with Shiprocket Quick
Shiprocket Quick is designed for small businesses looking for lightning-fast local delivery service. We offer unmatched ease and convenience, the best shipping rates, and faster rider allocation. The platform ensures your customer’s orders can hit the road in record time.
With Shiprocket Quick, you can enjoy seamless integration of the top local delivery services – Dunzo, Borzo, Porter, etc. – from a single user-friendly app. It also offers exclusive rates for D2C businesses and traders. You don’t have to worry about demand surges, and you still leverage API integrations and live order tracking.
Shiprocket Quick not only offers multiple carrier options for local deliveries but also ensures cost-effectiveness. It enables you to compare different local delivery services and choose the one that fits your budget. This makes Shiprocket Quick a preferred choice for small businesses who want to enhance delivery efficiency even with limited budgets and resources.
Conclusion
The evolution of local delivery is transforming the eCommerce industry. Nowadays, local delivery is not just a logistical function for most eCommerce businesses, but it’s a core part of the customer experience. If your local delivery models are backed by advanced technology and efficient operations, you will not only meet rising consumer expectations but also gain a competitive edge in the market.
As the demand for faster, more convenient deliveries continues to rise, local delivery is poised to be the future of eCommerce. It’ll enable brands to scale, reduce costs, and create lasting customer loyalty, and build brand loyalty.
