An Ultimate Guide to Hyperlocal Delivery Management System

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An Ultimate Guide to Hyperlocal Delivery Management System

The hyperlocal delivery services market is projected to grow with a 14.9% CAGR and amount to ​​USD 5,188.60 billion by 2030.

Further, the projected market volume for the platform-to-consumer delivery (food) market will be USD 302.40 bn by 2026

While the market is teeming with opportunities for local businesses, especially the brick-and-mortar establishments, process inefficiencies and reliance on manual operations can churn more losses than profits.

Hence, it is crucial to have a reliable, robust, and functionality-driven software solution that automates and optimizes the processes and empowers people in the hyperlocal business ecosystem. Such solutions use AI, automation and analytics to solve the delivery orchestration challenges and make operations more efficient by leveraging automation, AI, and analytics. 

How do they do so and what are the different benefits they offer forms the subject matter of this discussion. 

Let us begin with a brief overview of hyperlocal delivery management solutions.

What Is A Hyperlocal Delivery Management System

The hyperlocal delivery management system is an integrated software solutions that help businesses to “plan, manage, monitor, fulfill, track and optimize” their logistics processes and deliveries in the hyperlocal ecosystem.

An end-to-end hyperlocal delivery management system enables businesses in various ways, such as:

  • Smart order and driver allocation to ensure that the order ETA SLAs are never breached
  • Maximize the use of the available resources (drivers and vehicles) in the most optimal way 
  • Reduce operational costs by minimizing fuel costs, vehicle costs, etc.
  • Automate delivery fulfillment processes to ensure timely deliveries
  • Adhere to the quick delivery SLAs such as quick deliveries, 30-minute deliveries, 10-minute deliveries, etc.
  • Manage deliveries, riders, vehicles, customers, and entire communication from a single device or dashboard
  • Improved operational visibility, such as which vehicle is best for delivering in a 1 Km radius, which driver is the best for a specific delivery, etc.
  • Support local businesses to cater to the nearby customers without setting up an online store

While these are some of the ways a hyperlocal delivery management system can help local retailers and businesses, these are definitely not the only benefits it offers.

However, it is important to understand the entire ecosystem before we discuss the various advantages of using a hyperlocal delivery solution.

Next, we explore the various components of a hyperlocal delivery ecosystem that will help us understand the various logistical pain points.

Components of A Hyperlocal Delivery Ecosystem

A hyperlocal delivery ecosystem comprises multiple components or entities:

  • Store: Can be a dark store, a mini-warehouse, a large warehouse, a large store, or a corner shop
  • OMS or Order Management System: The software program that receives, records, tracks, and basically manages the incoming orders
  • WMS or Warehouse Management System: The software program that allows businesses and stores to manage (monitor and record) the inventory, place new orders for stock, etc.
  • TMS or Transport Management System: The software program that kick-starts once the order is packed and ready for delivery. It comprises various modules for route optimization, delivery tracking, real-time order tracking, delivery validation, etc.
  • Fleet: The asset pool of riders and vehicles. If the store has a permanently on-call fleet for deliveries, it is called a dedicated fleet. If a store operates with a shared fleet model, where various outlets share a few riders and vehicles, it is called a floating fleet.

Now, once an order is taken, the TMS will start looking for the best or the most optimal combination of driver and vehicles to get the delivery started. The delivery starts right after the driver collects the packed order. 

While the driver is out for delivery, the manager can track and verify that the driver is following the system-generated route for the delivery.

Once the driver reaches the gate, the location is verified, or the delivery confirmation is obtained from the customer in the form of an OTP, etc.

Then, once again, the driver is marked available for delivery, and the entire cycle repeats. 

This is an overall walkthrough of how a hyperlocal delivery management system works.

Before we take a deeper dive into the benefits of hyperlocal delivery management system, it is important to first understand the different types of the hyperlocal business models.

Hyperlocal Business Models – A Detailed View

The hyperlocal business model can be of four types:

Single Store Model

This business model is relevant for the well-established stores with a vast customer base, such as supermarket franchises, that wish to increase their customer reach with an online presence. 

These stores have a dedicated fleet and might also onboard freelance drivers during peak hours or during seasonal rush. 

In this model, the stores use a dedicated hyperlocal delivery app that lists the products they sell. Some common examples include supermarket and food delivery chains, such as BigBasket and Dominos, resp.

Store Pick Model

In this model, the customers can place orders online and later pick them up from a nearby store. As soon as the customer places an order, the picking, packing, and bagging at the store starts, such that the order is ready to be picked up even before the customer arrives for the pickup.

Such models allow customers to collect their orders without having to wait in long queues or tills. 

Hybrid Model

In this model, the stores offer their customers doorstep deliveries and in-store pickups. These businesses can operate with a dedicated or floating fleet.

So, the customers can opt for any mode of shopping as per their convenience.

Aggregator Model

In this model, the hyperlocal deliveries are mediated by a hyperlocal service provider that sits between the customer and the store. 

Thus, the stores are able to expand their reach without having to build an online store or app, such as the restaurants and eateries listed on Zomato. These businesses generally don’t have a fleet of their own and get the facility from a service aggregator, in this case, Zomato.

Now that we have discussed the various types of hyperlocal business models, let us move on to discuss the various challenges a versatile, reliable, and smart hyperlocal delivery management system can solve.

Hyperlocal Delivery Management System: Challenges It Solves

Unit Economics

Maximizing unit economics is one of the high-priority agendas for every business.

However, ensuring optimized unit economics becomes a major hassle while managing deliveries in a local space, especially when there is a promise of quick delivery. 

This is because it is impossible to figure out which driver is available for delivery and which vehicle will be the most cost-efficient choice for deliveries. 

This is where the hyperlocal delivery management system plays a crucial role. Smart hyperlocal delivery software solutions run on AI-powered modules to dynamically calculate the most affordable and optimal driver and vehicle for delivery.

For example, suppose a store has 12 drivers, and 5 of them use bicycles for nearby deliveries. In that case, the system will automatically filter out the other 7 while choosing a driver for delivery within a 1 KM radius.

Thus, robust software for hyperlocal deliveries can help reduce transportation costs.

Operations and Process Management

For businesses recording millions of orders daily, operational and process efficiency is vital for functional existence. 

While this is not possible manually, having poor software that cannot analyze the trends in shopping, delivery, and transport processes, also doesn’t make the cut.

A smart and versatile hyperlocal delivery management system that computes, analyzes, optimizes, and performs with a dynamic data analysis and real-time scenario processing is the key to efficiency.

Some key considerations for achieving operational efficiency include:

  • Dynamic order allocation
  • Geo-fencing for driver allocation and asset allocation
  • Dynamic en-route order allocation
  • Dynamic ETAs
  • Using real-time road conditions for managing delivery routes
  • Predictive insights from historical data
  • Validation and authentication checks on all ends, such as customer, OMS, WMS, etc.

Hence, hyperlocal delivery software leverages automation and smart routines for maximizing operational and process efficiencies.

Routing

Routing is a core offering of hyperlocal delivery solutions and involves multiple offerings that vary across vendors, such as:

  • Correct delivery address mapping
  • Geo-location coordinates for delivery address
  • Real-time routing based on real-time traffic
  • Ensuring that the system-generated route is being followed
  • Marking driver availability and delivery success by geo-fence validation, etc.

AI/ML-powered hyperlocal delivery systems, compute the most optimal routes in relation to the business-specific constraints and use cases.

Some examples include:

  • Specific vehicles in a specific location
  • Vehicle capacity utilization
  • Dynamic order clubbing
  • Consignment weight, volume, etc
  • Consignment nature, such as hazardous, delicate, fragile, fresh, etc.

Accomplishing this manually is impossible, but this is just a glimpse of how versatile the benefits of a hyperlocal delivery management system can be.

Customer Visibility and Communication

The software for hyperlocal deliveries comes with in-built real-time tracker modules that allow both, the manager and the customer to check the real-time delivery progress.

This becomes of paramount importance in the case of quick deliveries, such as 10-min or 30-minute deliveries as the customers stay engaged with the order tracking and can actually see whether the rider is proceeding in the right direction or not.

Further, the delivery is marked complete only when the customer has signed it, or shared the OTP or the driver is tracked in the geo-fence of the delivery address.

Now, the hyperlocal delivery management system eliminates the need for a different app for customer communication, such as feedback, alerts, etc. 

Thus, they save time and resources and aggregate the communication for all the entities in a hyperlocal ecosystem.

Optimization

When we think of more deliveries, we visualize increasing the number of trips or vehicles or riders. 

However, the hyperlocal delivery systems help businesses scale their operations and, in turn, revenue via optimization instead of increased trips or riders.

These solutions come with smart logic and rules for driver and order allocation and management, allowing businesses to increase the number of orders per vehicle. Also, constraints such as maximizing the vehicle capacity allow businesses to deliver more orders in one trip.

The managers can also set the amount of cash a driver can have for COD orders, or the upper limit on the number of deliveries for safe operations, etc. 

Thus, with smart automation at play, businesses can leverage the optimization of resources to amplify their revenue.

Now that we have discussed the hyperlocal business model and the benefits a hyperlocal delivery management system offers, let us move ahead.

Why Shipsy: Getting Started With the Best Hyperlocal Delivery Management System

Every business has different use cases for hyperlocal delivery management, mainly because of different business models and entities in a hyperlocal ecosystem. 

Hence, opting for a standalone standard software that offers routing or order allocation only is not a wise decision, especially if a business is operating at a scale or is planning to expand.

We recommend investing in an efficient, end-to-end hyperlocal delivery management system, such as Shipsy, that offers diverse features, such as:

  • Dynamic driver allocation and en route order clubbing
  • Improved customer experience via omnichannel communication
  • Smart delivery orchestration
  • Zero ETA SLA breach
  • Validate driver-marked nondelivery reasons, authenticate the delivery attempts, validate order pickups, etc
  • Data analytics and real-time tracking

Also explore, how the right technology and automation can make quick commerce sustainable, Click Here.

Shipsy’s smart hyperlocal delivery management solution helps:

  • Reduce average order allocation time by 45%
  • Reduce the steps involved in the delivery process by 77%
  • Increase deliveries per driver by 14%

What makes Shipsy’s hyperlocal delivery management system unique is the fact that it scales and evolves as per the business needs and comes as a custom SaaS offering that fits snugly with OMS, WMS, ERP systems, etc.

For more information and to get started, please explore Shipsy’s hyperlocal delivery solution or book a demo today!

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