Retail as an industry will always be at the mercy of their customers. As their customers’ preferences shift, the retailers as a whole have to adjust to continue catering to their customers. As more and more orders are placed online, retailers have a much higher standard of order fulfillment expectations to meet. For smaller online retailers, this can be a challenge. For an organization like Amazon, not so much. Many customers default to shopping with Amazon specifically for their shipping capabilities. The question becomes, what can a struggling business do to keep up with their customers shipment expectations? This post will detail just that.
First, it’s important to understand one specific step in order fulfilment, known as Last Mile Delivery. This is when a purchased product moves from its fulfillment center or fulfillment hub to the final point of sale. As mentioned previously, for many companies without the same capabilities as Amazon, this phase is not as fleshed out. As such, it has become a critical problem for these companies and in many cases has led to a decrease in online sales.
It wasn’t until recently that the last mile delivery stage of order fulfillment was fully fleshed out. Many years ago, orders placed online would not be met with such sophisticated tracking information. In most cases, online shoppers were told to expect a product within a range of dates and that was about all of the information they got. Of course businesses would still try their best to get their customers’ products to them as quickly as possible, but the expectations of customers were much less demanding then. Now, as more and more giants continue to control the space, shipment expectations have long been on the rise.
For many sellers today, delivery speeds are only half the issue. As more and more online shopping has been done throughout the pandemic, sellers have seen incredible leaps in order and delivery volume. The solution to these delivery woes? In most instances, is fully fleshing out your company’s Last Mile Delivery strategy. Most times, this requires an inventory management system that ensures there are no backorders. It also requires ample warehouse space around the country that reduces the distance between product and customer. These warehouse spaces allow for more robust delivery options in order to accommodate more thoroughly for your customers. In addition to this, companies must have established quality standards for their customers. That is going beyond just providing an excellent product, but also providing rigid tracking for placed orders.
Rather than continuing to stray further away from your customers, it might be time for your business to consider how some changes to its last mile delivery strategy can help. Fine-tuning the order fulfillment strategy of your business can make all the difference in acquiring a competitive advantage within your niche. For more information on how third-party businesses can help your order fulfilment, be sure to consult the infographic coupled alongside this post. Courtesy of WAREHOWZ
