Article: How to Enhance Your Brand and Keep Your Customers Satisfied with More Delivery Choices

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Suppose you're a sales, marketing, customer service, or logistics professional fulfilling orders at a hybrid bricks-and-mortar e-commerce/retail company or a pure-play e-commerce outfit.

Until a few years ago, shipping was pretty simple for you: UPS, the U.S. Postal Service, and FedEx did most residential deliveries, offering full-service operations, commitment to excellence, and a record of 98%+ delivery promises kept.

But the rush to e-commerce, escalating customer delivery expectations, omnichannel fulfillment, and complex sales channels all mean delivery has gotten a lot more complicated.

Plus, today's customers are not one-size-fits-all.

Many shop online. They live or work in less populated rural areas or heavily congested urban environments. Or everywhere in between. They purchase goods from high-end bicycles and fast-moving consumer goods to tractor parts. And they may (or may not) expect or even demand next-day, same-day, or even same-hour delivery.

With such a wide range of demands and expectations, you may find yourself needing a new delivery strategy to "meet your customers where they live."

So how can you provide different delivery choices, keep your entire range of delivery promises, reduce your "free" delivery costs, optimize customers' sustainability experience, and minimize damage? Further, how can you stay informed about exceptions with in-transit orders, offer free and convenient returns, monitor carrier delivery performance and customer interaction, streamline cross-border e-commerce, and use real-time analytics to monitor and improve your delivery performance?

It's a tall order. But you can start at the beginning, using a 10-step approach we outline in our ebook: 10 Brand-Enhancing Moves Retailers Can Make to Optimize Customers' Delivery Experience.

Take the first step: Offer more delivery choices

Retailers want to both engage and retain customers. And while delivery has been retail's holy grail for several years, it's best to be aware of the many factors that come into play when you offer customers multiple delivery options:

Know that carriers are in the driver's seat right now. Smaller carriers are picky about what they are willing to pick up and deliver. They have to be: Freight volumes have shot through the roof recently, creating a capacity crunch. And unfortunately for carriers, not every pickup and delivery is profitable, given the lack of back-haul or congested routes that delay goods in transit. Retailers have even seen FedEx and UPS rationing pickups. So knowing which carriers to choose—those who will willingly and faithfully deliver--and when to choose them is both a challenge and an opportunity.

Take contractual obligations into account. It's hard for shippers to consider all contractual terms when making same-day decisions. You may have negotiated rate discounts with carriers requiring you to hit monthly minimum volumes. As you add carriers to your portfolio, you need to know when and how to use them without adversely impacting your existing carrier contractual obligations.

Consider your delivery range. Local and regional carriers are limited in the geographic areas they are willing to cover (for example, LTL freight generally stays within 500 miles of the home base). Many carriers have lost money by overextending their delivery range to win a shipper's business. You'll need to factor that into your carrier selection process.

Factor in the delivery environment. Your costs will vary based on delivery location. For example, urban areas can be unprofitable for carriers facing moderate-to-extreme traffic congestion. And rural areas require more time in transit and have fewer stops with little back-haul available, creating an "empty return trip." Customer locations vary from urban high rises to army bases and farms. And some customers' delivery preferences exceed the range of services that certain carriers are willing to or capable of providing. Most carriers live and die by achieving density and aggregation in their pickups and deliveries. Minimum volumes are finding their way into carrier contracts, along with the seasonal maximum pickup capacity constraints.

Think about your product type. Is a crowd-sourced Prius driver going to deliver a muffler from an auto parts store? No. But they could easily handle spark plugs or carburetors. Likewise, not all delivery services are suited to pickup and delivery of hazardous goods like batteries or pharmaceuticals or even valuable or fragile goods, alcohol, or other controlled substances.

Consider carriers' cube capacity and equipment requirements. Carriers love cubing out their vehicles but may impose limits on what they are willing to pick up. To avoid incurring a dimensional weight (DIM) fee or surcharge, you'll need to know your accumulated weight, cube, and the number of packages shipped on any given day. You'll also do yourself a favor if you have a good idea of what kind of equipment each carrier has at its disposal (vehicle size, hand trucks, dollies, liftgate, and the like).

Understand that your customers care about sustainability, so you should too. Huge trucks delivering tiny boxes to houses in the country leave a huge carbon footprint. Maybe your more eco-conscious customers would prefer picking up shipments at a local UPS or FedEx store or e-commerce locker. Your ability to provide a sustainability experience will increasingly be linked to your brand.

Is it time to build yourself a flexible set of options for delivering your goods to customers? Sendflex's delivery optimization platform takes the guesswork out of carrier service selection and load optimization. We use AI to instantly choose the best carrier service based on shipper and carrier preferences, limitations, and constraints. Your result: A delivery experience that does justice to your brand, keeps your customers coming back for more, and recommending your business to others.

Want to learn more about how Sendflex helps you delight your customers? Download our ebook: 10 Brand-Enhancing Moves Retailers Can Make to Optimize Customers' Delivery Experience.

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Shipping technology developers and integrators, 3PLs, and shippers need to shift the focus from automating shipping processes to optimizing the quality of a seamless D2C delivery experience. Here's how.

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