Plan, procure, execute, & track transportation for every shipment across your supply chain & logistics operations
A SaaS solution to help grow your business by achieving 100% perfect order execution at high volumes
Increase vehicle capacity utilization and customer promise adherence
Grow your business with omnichannel presence and automated pickups
Consolidate shipments for hub to hub movement across land and air
Real-time customer communications and collect accurate PODs
Orchestrate logistics operations with multiple 3rd party carriers
Achieve cost effective, scalable, sustainable, and customer centric deliveries
Orchestrate all your cross-border logistics operations with ease
Improve address accuracy, ensure first-attempt delivery success, reduce costs and boost customer experience
Gain end-to-end shipment visibility, get proactive alerts, and send customers live tracking links
Grow business in a dynamic world and manage operations across First, Middle & Last mile
Delight customers by seamlessly managing store and online orders across own fleet and 3rd party
Reduce freight costs & get end to end visibility across shipments
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The global express delivery market is expected to be USD 484.38 BN by 2030 and quick commerce deliveries with 10-20 mins delivery windows are growing 25% faster than the deliveries spanned over hours. Increasing urbanization, rapid e-commerce adoption, and changing customer expectations are some of the key factors contributing to this exponential growth. However, meeting customers’ quick delivery service expectations can be challenging. And, exceeding customer demands in quick commerce is equivalent to running an Olympic marathon: a recipe of hard work, brainstorming and overcoming fierce competition.
Customers no longer see fast shipping options as a perk but as a requirement and studies reveal that 46% of respondents say they would abandon a shopping cart if the delivery timelines were longer than expected.
Quick delivery service or faster order fulfillment is a crucial differentiator for enterprise success. A recent report claims that 62% of consumers correlate fast shipping speed with a positive buyer experience. Also, 55% of consumers switch to retailers that offer quicker deliveries.
Corporate giants are stepping up their game to stay ahead of the evolving buyer needs with disruptive measures and innovative services. Amazon is raising the bar for its prime members, and Walmart offers free NextDay delivery to online shoppers without charging any extra membership fee.
A recent survey states that 39% of consumers expect two-day shipping of products to be free. As per the modern-day consumer, two-day delivery does not constitute fast and efficient order fulfillment.
On the other hand, if businesses offer excellent customer service through quick delivery and returns, companies experience increased sales volume, a low cart abandon rate, and better customer loyalty.
But what does it mean for mid-sized or small-sized enterprises? How can they battle it out against the corporate goliaths and leave their own mark?
In this blog, we will explore the multiple facets of quick delivery service in detail and how businesses can turn it into a competitive advantage.
Digital adoption and innovative solutions have enabled businesses to execute next- and same-day deliveries seamlessly. Although e-commerce platforms promise 24-hour or 12-hour deliveries, many brands still follow traditional models and take 3-5 days for order fulfillment.
In the traditional delivery model, products are not shipped on the same day. As a result, the product takes more time to reach the consumer. With growing competition among players in eCommerce, the traditional delivery model is no longer the set standard as it is time-consuming, and fails to meet evolving customer delivery standards.
In quick delivery models, the product is shipped out on the same day after the order is placed. There are many variants of quick delivery service models like same-day delivery, 30 minutes delivery, or 10 minutes delivery. This means that the entire process of order capture, bagging, routing, and delivery happens within 10 minutes!
Pitch in the scale of operations, delivery orchestration, management, optimization, CX, and the entire recipe seems nothing but a complex puzzle.
Let us find out how a quick delivery service happens before we share how to solve this puzzle.
Quick delivery services complete order fulfillment within a duration of 40-10 minutes. Robust solutions such as Shipsy’s QSR platform cater to the increasing order volumes via agile, cost-effective, and customer-centric operations. We have listed down the step-by-step process involved in a delightful on-demand delivery experience.
Step 1: A customer places an order, and the Delivery Management System receives intimation regarding details and SLA from POS/OMS/WMS/ERP.
Step 2: The delivery management system’s auto order allocation engine classifies orders as per delivery type, allocates the order automatically after applying multiple optimization constraints, and pushes them further on Driver App for execution. This process is done by leveraging the in-built AI/ML-based algorithms and is the key contributor towards efficiency, operational excellence, and profitability.
Step 3: Once the rider is notified on the driver app, the order is collected from the vendor or dark store for delivery. All the drivers present in the geo-fence of the pickup location are evaluated based on multiple constraints, such as order clubbing, rider payouts, vehicle type, etc.
Step 4: The driver App shares the driver’s real-time status with the delivery management system, as well as the customer, which further pushes real-time tracking notifications of orders and vehicles to concerned parties. The quick delivery service management system also helps managers monitor, track and manage the on-the-move riders by sending alerts in case a driver deviates from a system-suggested route.
Step 5: Once the driver makes doorstep delivery and collects COD / online payments upon delivery, notification along with an ePOD is pushed to the quick delivery service system, confirming the order completion report to all the stakeholders.
Step 6: Finally, the system provides analytics regarding delivery time, mode of payment, and causes of delayed delivery (if any) to all parties involved.
With highly reliable data insights, businesses can find any hidden problems or operational loopholes and optimize their delivery operations even better.
However, meeting delivery-related expectations is a challenging prospect. We explore some of them in the section below.
Lack of address accuracy creates hassle and results in delayed, wrong, and failed deliveries. Several businesses still manually plan deliveries, which leaves room for human error.
If a wrong address is shared, or the rider misses the exit or turn, and there is no real-time tracking of riders, they will end up going to the wrong destination, resulting in failed attempts. A failed delivery costs as much as $16.58 to the concerned parties.
For quick commerce and same-day deliveries, you must ensure rider availability at all times to meet on-demand delivery timelines. In the absence of smart automation, it becomes a hassle for businesses to allocate orders based on key factors such as location, cost-effectiveness, and the nearest available delivery agent.
Moreover, manual routing makes the delivery process time-intensive, and unforeseen circumstances such as traffic and weather conditions can hamper the rider’s productivity.
Manual delivery management barely integrates with third-party systems like POS/OMS/WMS/ERP. Businesses that do not focus on automated integration struggle with on-time delivery pickup, order allocation, and real-time delivery tracking and are not notified regarding doorstep delivery status or failed delivery attempts.
Product demands are not linear. Businesses often experience a hike in demand during seasonal sales, festivities, and rush hours. Without intelligent platforms, it becomes difficult to plan inventory and stock management. Products going out of stock during periods of high demand hampers the revenue and brand reputation.
Quick delivery service players complete order fulfillment in narrow timelines, such as 30 minutes or less. Manual or monolithic systems fail to meet the urgency of timelines. Each order goes through several processes before reaching its destination. Mismanagement of goods or inefficiency in operations brings down the profit margins.
Once the order leaves the warehouse or retail store, delivery managers need to ensure that the products are delivered on time. Vehicle idling is a common issue that quick commerce businesses have been facing across industry verticals.
Lack of real-time monitoring also results in mismanagement of assets, SLA breaches, missed miles, and increased fuel waste, inevitably affecting sustainability goals.
Quick delivery service efficiency can’t reach its maximum potential if the foundation of your delivery management is weak. Without automation, planning multi-stop deliveries, and achieving vehicle efficiency becomes tedious.
Manual routing results in longer routes and doesn’t take into account unpredictable events such as accidents or vehicle breakdowns. As a result, deliveries get delayed, and fuel waste is also not kept under check, increasing your TCO.
By now it must be clear that close real-time monitoring, optimization, and strategic planning are crucial for efficient and profitable quick delivery services. For an even more exhaustive understanding, we explore the importance and benefits of optimization in the quick delivery sector.
An efficient route planning consists of various parameters – real-time traffic conditions, fuel efficiency, minimizing distance, time, cost per delivery per mile, weather conditions, and environmental regulations. Along with delivery managers, customers also need to be provided with the delivery status throughout the journey.
Intelligent routing makes it easier for both customers and merchants to track the rider’s location and know the ETA. Smart execution is crucial in making a rider’s trip seamless and cost-effective with order clubbing, or multi-stop order planning.
AI-enabled delivery management platforms provide the best-optimized routes to ensure the successful completion of multiple deliveries at one go. Since the customer is also kept informed in real-time regarding important delivery milestones, it reduces the number of calls to customer care.
Successful execution of an order is the key goal of order management. Seamless tracking, capturing, fulfilling, and managing customer orders are multiple variables of order management. A robust delivery management system tracks and auto-allocates orders according to customer specifications, preferences, location, availability of rider, and order time.
Enterprises that use delivery management systems for order management get access to real-time and reliable inventory data. Such businesses experience impressive order fulfillment rates, healthy coordination among processes, and improved line staff and rider productivity.
Third-party logistics partners provide distribution, warehousing, and fulfillment services to retail or e-commerce businesses. 3PL services have a focused approach that makes them competent, expert, sustainable and cost-effective.
A 3PL management platform that is suited to your business needs reduces your overhead costs, provides operational scalability, and saves a significant amount of time. However, managing multiple 3PLs is also crucial for efficient and profitable operations. Smart end-to-end quick delivery management platforms like Shipsy enable your enterprise to overcome managerial burdens and maintain an uninterrupted flow of operations.
Businesses can significantly reduce the TCO and increase profit by clubbing various orders together.
Intelligent routing software enables multiple deliveries to be mapped en route. Optimizing your delivery operations with smart automation allows the clubbing of orders based on destination and proximity between two orders. With dynamic order clubbing, businesses can maintain rider productivity at all times and consistently meet SLA guidelines.
Business efficiency is accelerated across multiple factors, such as resource utilization, delivery operations, and fuel consumption. In addition, clubbing multiple orders maximizes rider efficiency, reduces the number of trips, and increases asset productivity.
Factors like traffic and bad weather conditions tend to play spoilsport when carrying out super-fast deliveries. Dynamic routing allows businesses to re-route vehicles as per the changing conditions and ensure an uninterrupted flow of successful delivery attempts.
Customers desire quick and efficient deliveries, and businesses need to identify and overcome any exigencies instantly for a positive CX.
Next, we explore some trends in the quick delivery sector.
Advanced technologies and data analytics are finding novel use cases in supply chain and logistics disruptions, such as quick deliveries. One such example is the collection and analysis of historical data to understand customer pain points better and improve delivery operations.
Predicting order volumes and peaks, predictive ETAs, dynamic route optimization, and auto-order allocation to riders are some trends from AI and ML in building robust quick commerce delivery systems.
If you’re a brand that serves food, groceries, bakery, or medicine, you must be able to deliver products to the customer’s destination within a span of a few minutes. Robust quick delivery service solutions leverage dynamic routing to ensure the delivery flow remains uninterrupted, even in the face of unexpected circumstances such as traffic or weather conditions.
The AI-enabled platforms also auto-allocate orders based on location, consignment load, proximity, etc., for quick and efficient deliveries.
Aggressive marketing approaches such as first-time user discounts and coupons are being increasingly offered by businesses to attract more customers. Since dark stores reduce the cost of managing a retail store, brands can invest more in providing lucrative options to buyers and increasing loyalty.
With the establishment of dark stores, the infrastructural cost will decline. Businesses will put efforts into reducing delivery timelines by focusing on hyper-local markets. Customers will continue to order online, and the fulfillment will happen via delivery partners located strategically across stores.
Driver safety and asset monitoring are crucial to ensuring efficient and quick deliveries. Businesses will increasingly invest in robust solutions to seamlessly facilitate route management, vehicle tracking, performance analytics, and easy rider payouts.
Historical data will enable brands to predict anomalies better and strategize accordingly to eliminate hassles in quick delivery service.
Now that we have a comprehensive understanding of the quick delivery ecosystem, let us explore what is the best way to ensure quick delivery services.
Robust quick commerce platforms with last-mile automation capabilities will be vital to ensuring delightful on-demand delivery experiences. Futuristic strategy planning coupled with integrated automation and SaaS platforms is crucial for the seamless execution of quick delivery services.
Automation traps redundancies, identifies operational loopholes, and helps businesses gain operational excellence. Hence, investing in smart automation that aligns well with the business use cases is a must.
Processes and procedures will align, and data from various software like POS, WMS, and ERP will integrate and provide insights into the business’s overall operations through centralized dashboards.
Auto order allocation, driver management app, ePOD, and automated payment will help enterprises to maintain and manage SLAs efficiently.
Standalone software is costly, fails to provide ad-hoc reports, and requires IT dependence. However, in custom SaaS applications, the cloud-based data is stored, secured, and shared with stakeholders hassle-free.
One can now seamlessly manage the low-code SaaS platforms and draw insights to take affirmative actions quickly. Analytics and metrics on missed and delayed delivery, rider productivity, and missed miles help concerned stakeholders to identify gaps and improve delivery operations.
With Shipsy as your quick delivery partner, you achieve better and faster automation to make data-driven decisions. Shipsy’s AI-powered logistics management platform enables you to deliver delightful hyperlocal delivery experiences via smart functionalities, such as driver slot management, dynamic en route order clubbing, live order tracking, and many other loaded capabilities that help you manage SLAs efficiently.
You can reduce steps in the delivery process and deliver more in a single trip, and experience a host of advantages:
For more information, or to get in touch with our experts please schedule a custom demo today.
Delivering under 10 minutes in the busiest bylanes is no small feat. While dark stores bring inventory closer to the customer, technology is the real protagonist creating this magic.
As per Statista, the online food delivery sector is expected to generate a revenue of USD 151,526 Million in 2021.
