How Your Organization’s Last Mile Delivery Impacts Lead Times
As the necessity for online shopping becomes more and more necessary as a result of continued COVID-19 restrictions, the expectations of companies’ order fulfillment strategies continues to rise. Think of how many consumers have purchased from Amazon throughout this pandemic as a result of guaranteed two-day shipping. Inversely, consider how many customers avoided shopping with smaller businesses as a result of their unexpected delivery times. As more and more customers continue to expect order fulfillment times to decrease, more and more organizations find themselves unable to keep up.
One of the most key steps of the order fulfillment processes of organizations is known as Last Mile Delivery. This is the last phase of order fulfillment, where a purchased product moves from its fulfillment center or hub to its final point of sale, otherwise known as the customer. As previously mentioned, this phase is often where most less established organizations fall flat. Resulting in a critical issue for organizations, largely leading to a decrease in online sales.
While this phase is currently causing organizations a lot of trouble, it didn’t always exist. Decades ago online shoppers would place an order and receive little to no information regarding the shipment process of the package. Customers would simply place the order and understand the company would do everything in their power to get it to them as fast as possible. Now, customers receive some of the most robust tracking information in the industry. As Amazon’s reign continues, more and more expectations are set around the guarantee of their prime delivery service. Some customers have even come to expect their Amazon orders to arrive within the hour.
Unfortunately as it stands today, delivery speeds are only half of the issue for these smaller businesses. As previously mentioned, pandemic restrictions have led to an incredible rise in order and delivery volume for countless businesses. The solution for these businesses struggling to maintain throughout this order volume is a fully fleshed out Last Mile Delivery strategy. Firstly, most organizations use an inventory management system in order to ensure there are absolutely zero backorders. In order to accomplish this, organizations require scattered warehouse space throughout the country to reduce the distance between the product and the consumer. The closer the product is to the consumer; the more delivery options can be offered to these consumers.
For organizations that feel as though their Last Mile Delivery operations aren’t operating as effectively as they like, it might be worth considering how some tuning could result in a better customer experience. Failure to do so could result in some of the most regular customers purchasing from new organizations that can guarantee a faster delivery speed. Without this tuning, your organization can be operating at a competitive disadvantage compared to the rest of the industry. In some of the most extreme cases, litigation can become involved as a result of delivery promises being broken. It’s always worth considering how your Last Mile Delivery can be improved.
For more information on how to do just that, be sure to review the accompanying infographic coupled alongside this post. Courtesy of WAREHOWZ.
