www.truckandtrack.com Winter 2024/25 Truck and Track 19 DESCARTES™ The good news for retailers is that speed of delivery is becoming less important year on year: far fewer customers are prepared to pay for fast delivery, preferring a lower cost alternative. Many customers also prioritise a precise delivery window over next day options, wanting the certainty of a delivery that arrives when they are at home. There is also more interest in environmentally friendly options, especially within younger generations. Retailers can leverage these delivery personas to flatten out demand and improve fulfilment certainty. Price conscious consumers don’t need an expensive next day delivery option, so don’t offer it. Environmentally aware individuals will respond well to delivery choices that include “green slots” where deliveries are consolidated in a specific area to reduce miles travelled. Embedding Predictability Retailers can influence buyer behaviour by offering achievable delivery options at the Point of Sale, including dates several weeks in advance, based on real-time insight into existing commitments and delivery resources. Continually monitoring the capacity planning process, with in-bound orders constantly assessed to present consumers with a range of delivery options and prices that accurately reflect the retailer’s capacity and cost model imposes far more certainty over the entire last mile process. With a view of the total demand and resources available across all geographic areas, a retailer can become far more sophisticated about maximising capacity and sharing resources across defined geographic regions. Adopting this approach has enabled John Lewis to increase delivery capacity by 35% without adding vehicles or drivers, and reduced fulfilment costs by £1.8 million. More efficient distribution also enables retailers to advance sustainability objectives by default through reduced mileage. Furthermore, the ability to nudge customers towards ‘green’ delivery slots that maximise delivery density and reduce costs allows a business to reinforce Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) goals. Boosting Confidence Online spending will continue to grow, but a sophisticated customer base has high expectations. They want to feel confident at every step in the ecommerce transaction, especially fulfilment. By flattening out demand and eradicating false promises, intelligence led capacity management reduces the risk of delivery problems, reinforcing the quality and consistency of customer experience. Building on this improved experience, retailers and delivery companies can avoid further consumer anxiety through improved communication at every touch point. Advance notice of the delivery window is a given, but the addition of on-going updates throughout the process will minimise the risk of missed deliveries whilst also reinforcing customer confidence. Problems happen – but keeping customers up to date in the event of accident, traffic or breakdowns will foster a far better relationship than leaving people in the dark about why delivery promises have been missed. It’s also important to add in the strong chain of custody, especially for the more expensive goods that are often purchased during peak season. Proof of delivery, including picture and signature capture, is now a core component of a good delivery experience for high value items, and increasingly key to boosting customer confidence. Conclusion There are many aspects of retail operations that are outside the business’ control. Supply chain disruptions can be caused by geopolitical change, weather events, even the widespread shortage of mariners. Inflation and interest rates affect not only operational costs but customer behaviour. There are, however, significant improvements that can be made to eradicate fulfilment uncertainty and transform customer confidence. Embedding real-time capacity planning in the ecommerce model allows retailers to eradicate uneconomic delivery slots, protecting margins. Offering only achievable, affordable delivery options based on in depth capacity information boosts delivery performance and minimise the chances of problems that can undermine customer perception, even lead to customer loss. And by mapping customer delivery personas into the delivery choices provided, with notifications of progress throughout the entire delivery process can proactively enhance customer perception. In an uncertain world, it’s time for retailers to add essential predictability to the ecommerce retail model. https://routinguk.descartes.com
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTE1MTA=