Retailers face a variety of challenges with delivery, including dealing with third-party delivery services and hiring and training an entire new department.
Monday, Jun 5, 2023
Many consumers gained a preference for delivery during the pandemic, pushing retailers to ramp up the delivery side of their business. But with delivery comes either dealing with a third-party delivery service or hiring and training an entire new department. An article in Retail Focus discusses some of the pitfalls retailers face and offers some suggestions for avoiding them.
The article lists five common problems: changes in demand, overworked drivers, labeling mistakes, unreliable third-party partners, and a lack of communication with customers. Fixing the first problem involves better last-mile delivery tracking. The issue of overworked drivers can be solved by simply hiring more drivers, but route optimization software can also make deliveries quicker and more efficient. More effective automation can cut down on delivery mistakes.
To avoid problems with delivery services, the article suggests, make sure to thoroughly research them beforehand, but also send a test package and call customer service and pretend to be a customer. They are representing you to your own customers, so you want to make sure they are treating customers well.
Finally, the article suggests you communicate with customers beyond tracking numbers by improving customer service so you can properly help if something goes wrong.
