Reducing Delivery Times: What Can E-commerce Businesses Do?

Ecommerce businesses live and die by their ability to reduce delivery times. Brands that can slash the time consumers must spend waiting to receive their products are often the most successful.

But how can companies in this space achieve this? Fortunately, we have some answers. This post runs through some of the strategies ecommerce businesses can use to reduce delivery times and make customers happy.

Invest In A Delivery Fleet

One option is to simply invest in a delivery fleet and use that in combination with a warehouse to slash delivery times. This approach is ideal for businesses wanting more branding and control over their “last mile,” and those needing to offer same-day delivery services.

Delivery fleets, of course, require massive investment and mandate you to hire specific teams. However, they can be helpful if you make, source, and produce goods locally, allowing you to deliver same-day if, for instance, customers order before 4 pm.

Implement Real-Time Tracking Updates

Another method is to implement real-time tracking updates. These are handy for customers, but they also provide high-level oversight for you. With these, your operations team can see snags in the system and where they need to invest more in streamlining processes.

Real-time tracking is also useful for proactive problem-solving. Seeing where goods are getting stuck in the pipeline can help you root out issues and ensure your customers that you’re dealing with the situation and are currently on top of the problem.

Boost Packaging Efficiency

You can also reduce delivery times by bumping up your packaging efficiency with on-demand logistics. The idea here is simple: use uniform and optimized packaging methods to ensure customers receive deliveries faster. One problem ecommerce businesses often have is the fact that they want to get products out of the door, but packaging bottlenecks prevent them from achieving the optimal processing rate. Processes like automated packaging systems reduce risks and help to prevent delays.

Introducing so-called “minimal handling” technology can also help. The idea here is to consult with experts on how to reduce the total number of packaging steps required to prepare a shipment for loading onto a van or truck, again cutting the time it takes to get it off the warehouse floor.

Use Drop-Shipping

Small-scale operations could also consider drop-shipping. The idea with these services is to partner with logistics carriers offering regional operations in specific areas. Firms often keep warehouses of goods close to customer centres and then use staff to pack products onto vans for last-mile delivery.

Of course, you’ll need to find fulfilment centres willing to stock your products. But if you can track them down, you can often generate significant advantages, including cheaper and faster delivery.

The alternative is to run your own fleet and then combine it with your in-house logistics services. These reduce the need to spend a lot of money on warehousing solutions while also giving you control over delivery times and part of the process.

Provide Multiple Shipping Options

Sometimes reducing delivery times across the board isn’t optimal. While customers find it convenient, they don’t always want to pay for it.

That’s why providing multiple shipping options is a good idea. With these, clients can choose the delivery time they want and pay more for faster options if they see fit.

Providing multiple shipping options in this way, therefore, allows customers to perform a cost-benefit trade-off. They can either pay more for shipping if they want goods sooner or less if they don’t mind as much when they arrive.

Leverage Automation

Of course, reducing delivery times is far easier if you leverage new automation technology, as many of the major ecommerce companies do already. These become more advanced every year, with technology taking off like never before, especially in the robotics sector.

For example, automated warehouses could massively improve sorting and packing speeds. Using robots to shuffle goods from one side of the warehouse to the other is a tried-and-tested strategy currently used by many firms to expedite fulfilment.

You also see many of these technologies in last-mile delivery. Companies are using AI to improve route optimization, showing drivers where they should go next instead of leaving it to guesswork.

Partner With Delivery Services

Lastly, you can speed up ecommerce delivery by simply partnering with delivery services. These firms often have scalable systems in place to improve speed and allow customers to get products on the same day in some cases.

Regional networks are usually the best, but you’ll need some ways to link them together if you sell nationally.