A Quick Guide to Improving Big and Bulky Logistics

The need for transporting large and oversized goods which is often referred to as big and bulky logistics has increased drastically. Consumers are getting friendly with buying big and expensive items online. The big and bulky last-mile delivery market will grow by 11.8% annually through 2025–Roadie, UPS Company. This translates to a great opportunity for the retailers and manufacturers.

Understanding “Big and Bulky”

The term “Big and Bulky” is often used to describe items that are bigger than usual, but need not be necessarily heavy. These require special handling and storage conditions due to their size and weight. From furniture and large appliances to pillows and building materials, these pose unique challenges in the fulfilment and warehousing. As e-commerce continues to expand and customer expectations rise, businesses must find efficient ways to manage the logistics of these large items. 

Critical aspects of Big and Bulky Logistics

a. Packaging and Protection:

Big and Bulky items often require customised packaging according to their size including padding, secured mechanism to protect them from getting damaged during transit.

b. Transportation:

Transporting large and heavy items require specialised vehicles like cranes, overload trucks. Additionally, training needs to be provided to personnel to handle the goods during loading, transit and unloading.

c. Storage and Handling:

The size of the big and bulky items can significantly impact the storage and handling process in the warehouse. These typically require ample space and may involve custom racking systems, which can lead to additional warehousing costs.

d. Regulatory Compliance:

Transporting oversized loads may require special permits and compliance with various regulations, including adhering to weight limits, ensuring road safety and specific travel times. There may also be environmental regulations related to emissions, especially for vehicles transporting heavy loads over long distances.

Top Challenges in Big and Bulky Delivery

Delivering large, bulky goods involves meeting several challenges that impact both customers and your business. These include:

1. Disparate Parts Delivery:

Bulky orders often come in parts. Think of a modular sofa. The seating sections, armrests, and cushions often arrive on different days. The sofa’s frame may be delivered first, followed by the cushions and then the sectional pieces. Not only does this cause inconvenience for customers but also increases chances of errors. For instance a child consignment may not belong to the parent consignment that was delivered in the first place.

Furniture will become the second largest category for e-commerce sales through 2027–Roadie, UPS Company

2. Managing Free Shipping Costs:

Who doesn’t like free or low priced shipping. But this comes at a cost. It is a very tough balancing hike for the retailers to cover the logistics cost without eating much of their profits. 

Nearly 70% of consumers are willing to abandon their cart if free shipping isn’t offered for large and bulky items.”

Source: Retail Dive

3. Optimum Utilisation of Truck Space:

Big and Bulky items are not just difficult to move, but sometimes require tons of space, special gadgets and tools to shift and lift them safely. Since these goods are delicate, over utilisation of space capacity might lead to damage of goods and undervaluation of trucks adds to the cost of the companies.

4. Disrupted Customer Experience:

Delivering large items often come with an extended delivery window, stretching over days or weeks, leaving customers waiting at home with no clear timeline. The lack of real-time updates frustrates customers, especially when compared to faster services for smaller items. Also, it can be difficult for companies to intimate customers with the exact date and time of delivery, further creating a sense of anxiety among customers. This challenge intensifies as retailers or manufacturers need to hire 3PL to execute deliveries thereby losing control over customer experience.

Over 56% of consumers expect real-time tracking for their large and bulky orders.

Source: Capgemini Research Institute

5. Inefficient Scheduling:

Approximately 53% of big and bulky shoppers claim that flexible shipping options influence their purchase and 58% of the big and bulky orders are rescheduled. Limited static scheduling leads to poor capacity utilisation, delivery delays and increased operational costs. Moreover, poor scheduling leads to missed deliveries and complicated reverse logistics, further impacting customer satisfaction, profitability and efficiency.

6. Costly Returns:

Returns are particularly very challenging when it comes to big and bulky items. The various processes involved in their reverse logistics are repacking, transportation and restocking which adds to the additional expenditure of the companies. Damaged goods or customer dissatisfaction often lead to returns, which is a more expensive process as compared to standard-sized items. Additionally, it is very crucial for the companies to handle returns efficiently as poor customer experience can further damage brand reputation and customer loyalty. 

Approximately 15-20% of large and bulky items purchased online are returned, which is double the return rate for smaller goods.

Source: National Retail Federation (NRF)

7. Higher Operational Costs:

Moving big and bulky items often requires specialised vehicles, equipment (like forklifts or cranes), and trained personnel to handle the loading and unloading process safely. Certain routes may have restrictions on vehicle size, weight limits, and timing, which complicates the planning of deliveries. Also, bulky items are more prone to damage during transit, requiring extra care in packaging, securing the load, and handling. This gradually increases delivery costs at every step.

Online sales of household appliances will grow at 7.5% annually through 2028.

8. Last mile delivery and installation:

Since most of the B&B goods need to be delivered in heavy vehicles like trucks, cranes etc, it’s quite challenging to deliver large packages in tight urban or hard-to-reach areas.  It’s also not just dropping off; Some items must be set up or installed, requiring careful coordination to ensure the installation team arrives on time.

This plays a crucial role in the purchase experience. Businesses need to ensure that technicians reach on time, do not linger at a customer’s home for long, safely handle items in case reaching a customer’s residence involves taking stairs or elevator and so on.

Over 40% of businesses handling big and bulky goods report inefficiencies in their last-mile delivery, with missed delivery windows being the leading cause of customer dissatisfaction.

Source: Deloitte

Tips for improving Big and Bulky Delivery

1. Optimise Packaging and Load Planning:

Damage and returns are a major concern in Big and Bulky, thus Proper packaging and load planning are essential. Businesses can use a combination of interior packing solutions such as corrosion protection, foam cushioning and exterior packing solutions such as plastic packaging systems, pallets and skids. Additionally, efficient load planning techniques, such as cubing and weight distribution, can help maximise the use of available space in transportation vehicles.

2. Leveraging Technology:

B&B deliveries have unique routing and scheduling challenges, including longer travel times, larger vehicle sizes, and stricter delivery windows. By leveraging such technologies and software,you’ll be able to overcome these challenges and deliver on time.

a. Real-Time Tracking:

Customers expect transparency and visibility throughout the delivery process, especially when dealing with large and expensive items. This function is an integration of GPS, IoT, and real time analytics to provide highly accurate ETA’s and improve delivery transparency. The implementation allows customers to gain end to end visibility, monitor their shipments, receive accurate delivery estimates, and plan accordingly. This further enhances transparency and improves their delivery experience, reducing the likelihood of missed deliveries and returns.

b. Route Optimisation:

Route optimisation is playing a crucial role in modern logistics by providing routing intelligence. By using the advanced algorithms, it takes into account traffic conditions, delivery windows, and fuel consumption and helps the businesses to help reduce cost and determine best routes.

3. Invest in Specialised Equipment and Training:

Investing in the right handling and transportation equipment is essential for managing big and bulky items. This includes forklifts, cranes, pallet jacks, and custom trailers designed to handle oversized goods. Additionally, staff must be trained in handling large items safely and efficiently, using specialised equipment, and following safety regulations. This will make the B & B delivery process smoother.

4. Enhance Last-Mile Delivery through white glove deliveries:

Last mile delivery is often very challenging in case of Big and Bulky Logistics. In order to overcome this challenge, businesses can explore innovative solutions such as white- glove services. White glove deliveries is a wider premium service which goes beyond transportation. It provides customers with a hassle-free and satisfying delivery experience for high-value or complex items that require careful handling and setup.It includes last mile delivery, inside delivery, installation, and removal of old items.

37% of consumers purchasing large, high-value items prefer white-glove delivery services, which include in-home setup and removal of packaging.
– Mckinsey & Company

5. Establish Warehouses Near Your Customer Base:

With the use of advanced analytical tools, companies can position their warehouses closer to the customer base as it will help them to cut down on delivery times and costs.

How Shipsy can Help Optimise B&B

Big and bulky logistics come with their own set of challenges, but by understanding and addressing the complexities of ‘Big and Bulky’ warehousing and fulfilment, businesses can improve their operations, reduce costs, and enhance customer satisfaction. As demand continues to grow, staying ahead of these challenges will be key to maintaining a competitive edge. To implement these steps, you need reliable and modern delivery software like Shipsy that helps you automate and optimise your delivery operations. The features include :

1. AI-Powered Routing:

System driven AI-powered route planning considers multiple constraints including order data (quantum, size, weight etc), vehicle data (volume capacity, distance capacity, speed, fuel-economy), SLA and slot data and 3PL costs to auto-generate the most efficient routes. It minimises distance travelled, asset count required, delivery time, market vehicle requirement and maximises capacity utilisation while transporting big and bulky items.

2. Multi-Carrier Management:

Automated multi-carrier management solutions efficiently allocate orders to 3PLs based on various business objectives like ‘on-time delivery record’, ‘white glove service’, ‘cost reduction,’ ‘best customer rated,’ and more. Such a solution analyses NDR data based on region, carrier, and consignment volume, validating NDR with customers. By integrating Rate & TAT masters, it enhances allocation accuracy and generates approximate 3PL costs, promptly flagging any deviations. The module offers a consolidated dashboard for tracking the performance of all 3PLs and provides standardised customer communication across 3PLs with vernacular language support.

3. Geocoding/Address Intelligence:

Geocoding converts physical addresses into precise GPS coordinates, ensuring accurate delivery locations. In big and bulky logistics, where delivery to hard-to-reach or non-standard addresses (like rural areas or large apartment complexes) is common, address intelligence minimises failed deliveries, reduces rerouting costs, and shortens delivery times by enabling precise route optimisation.

4. Vendor and Indent Management:

This technology streamlines interactions between manufacturers, suppliers, and logistics providers by automating purchase orders, inventory management, and supplier coordination. For big and bulky items, which often involve multiple suppliers and complex supply chains, vendor management ensures smooth procurement processes, reduces lead times, and prevents stock shortages, improving overall operational efficiency.

5. Digital Customer Experience:

A seamless digital experience enhances customer engagement by providing real-time delivery tracking, precise delivery windows, and automated communication. Since big and bulky deliveries often have longer windows and more customer touch points (due to scheduling and setup), a smooth digital interface boosts transparency and customer satisfaction, while reducing call centre loads.

6. Returns Automation:

Handling returns for large items is costlier and more complex. Returns automation streamlines this process by coordinating return pickups, scheduling, and refund processing, reducing the time and cost involved. Automated returns also improve customer convenience, boosting loyalty and reducing friction in post-purchase services.

7. After Sales Digitisation:

After-sales services like installation, maintenance, and support are critical for big and bulky items. Digitizing these processes, such as through automated scheduling, technician dispatch, and remote diagnostics, increases efficiency. It ensures timely service, enhances customer satisfaction, and provides better visibility into post-delivery issues, improving the overall life-cycle management of big-ticket products.

Book a demo today and see the difference for yourself.