Don’t go breaking my heart: Could shoppers be caught short by a lack of same-day delivery options this Valentine’s Day?
But gone are the days where a misstep such as forgetting Valentine’s Day would confine one to the bad books for the rest of the week, as with the advent of same-day delivery, even the laxest plans can be covered with a last-minute shopping spree.
As the day draws closer, we look at the issues relating to same-day delivery on the eCommerce landscape.
Although same-day delivery is widely available, there’s a certain disparity between consumer expectations and what retailers offer. A third of UK retailers don’t offer same-day delivery, whereas a third of consumers expect to see it as an option when shopping online. One in three are looking to add the service to their offering in the next year, but the reality customers want and that on offer from retailers are some ways apart.
The disparity arises from a lack of understanding on the part of the consumer, albeit not one they are at fault for. On the surface, same-day delivery would appear to be the same as next day delivery but with certain parts of the process sped up; however, as highlighted in a recent report from CACI, this simply isn’t the case.
As their report explains, with next day delivery, you at least have the luxury of a cut-off point after which any deliveries will be fulfilled the day after (i.e., orders placed after midnight on a Monday night will be delivered on Wednesday). But same-day delivery does not afford this hard deadline to the service manager. Orders can come in at any point which creates a logistical issue as it becomes tricky to know when to send out staff to pick items for an order – by waiting too long for extra orders to come in and they will waste time but send them too early, and you will miss orders that they will need to collect later.
Further to this, the nature of “same-day” varies wildly – it might mean you can get a delivery within the hour, or it could mean any time up until the late evening. These factors make same-day delivery a tricky offering to justify for many businesses, which is the reason many have steered clear for now, especially given the ubiquity of providers like Amazon that are tough to compete with scale-wise.
Despite the implementation issues in the immediate future, the path forward in the long term is a little clearer. Technological developments such as the self-driving delivery robots used by Domino’s and specialist same-day specialists offer a way forward for many companies. With the market expected to grow by $650 million in the coming year, it is clear the demand from consumers won’t be diminished any time soon, even with growing concerns over the environmental effects of same-day delivery.
One major area for improvement is delivery rate, given the time constraints same-day delivery places on the logistics sector. Address capture and validation are simple means of improving delivery rates by helping delivery companies generate faster delivery routes with more accurate addresses. By adding these features to your site, you can help your customers win the affection of their special someone this Valentine’s Day rather than end up gifting nothing but apologies.
Looking for more ways to optimise your delivery services? Take a look at the benefits of our address capture solution.