Fulfilling customer orders is one of the key metrics for running any successful business and when it comes to an e-commerce platform, much of that revolves around delivering products from your warehouse to the houses of the customers.
Shutterstock Licensed Photo – By Rashad Ashur
Now if you are a startup or a small e-commerce platform, the cost effective and often faster method of transporting your products is by partnering up with a courier service. Now traditionally businesses have vetted these courier services with a few main criteria in mind – ease of use, coverage area and of course package safety!
However, in the recent past as a large number of millennials have turned to online shopping, one new criteria has popped up for many of these e-commerce platforms. What is it? Well put simply it’s delivery time!
Now there are not a lot of couriers who do provide Same Day or even Next day delivery services right now, but partnering up with one may be in the best interests of your e-commerce platform! But if you choose someone same day delivery services, you can set your e-commerce platform apart from the rest of the competition by offering services that no one else can compete with. And this, gives you a huge edge that any good e-commerce platform should be able to convert into more business opportunities!
1. The Ability to Carry More Niche Products
It is always a good idea to diversify the number of products that you carry on your ecommerce platform. However, with some niche products like fresh produce, you really cannot stockpile them for any more than 24-48 hours. This is the reason most e-commerce platforms stay away from stocking grocery items as well as fruits and vegetables. However, with same day delivery services, you can deliver the products to your customers in time which means that you can operate on a niche that has very little competition in the online shopping space.
2. Saving on Storage Space and Costs
Most e-commerce solutions have to carry large inventories of products as their longer shipping times mean that there is a significant delay between when the order is placed from the customer’s end to the time it rolls out of the warehouse through a courier. With one day shipping though, this process is reduced to mere minutes and at the end of the day the warehouse is always empty since orders are being fulfilled so fast. This saves the e-commerce platform from spending extra in warehouse space and keep their customers happy at the same time.
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3. Connecting with Millennial Customers
Keeping pace with the hectic lifestyle of the millennial generation, customers have become increasingly impatient and seek out avenues that provide instant or near instant gratification. This is why an e-commerce platform with fast turnaround times is something that would gain their patronage as well as continued support. In fact, research has gone as far as to say that 3 out of 10 millennials actively search for a same day delivery option while ordering their products online. Now that is a pretty big chunk of the online shoppers out there and having same day delivery on your arsenal makes your e-commerce platform one of their premiere choices.
The one thing that has kept a lot of e-commerce startups from adopting the same day delivery option has been the fear of associated costs. However, with courier options becoming cheaper by the day, same day delivery is no more as unearthly expensive as it used to be.
And having it as a bonus feature that willing customers can pay to avail for not only increases customer satisfaction but also gives you the ability to offer products and services that other ecommerce platforms cannot. So, all things taken into account, the potential for an overall gain in business is huge and same day delivery is definitely worth checking out no matter how big or small your e-commerce business might be!
