Getting ready for peak season means steeling yourself for more than hearing That One Mariah Carey Song on repeat over your store speakers. It’s also time to stock the shelves and staff your stores for more foot traffic — but don’t stop there.

Peak season is about reaching and connecting with customers wherever they need you – both in-store and online. To do this, ensuring you have a flexible and scalable final-mile delivery strategy in place is an essential part of your peak season prep. After all, customers that opt for convenient delivery to their doorsteps should enjoy the same festive brand experience as those that brave the hustle and bustle to head to your store. 

The first step is understanding your fulfillment needs and how they align with your customers’ expectations and your company goals. 

Not sure where to begin? Roadie can help. Take our five-question quiz to learn more about which peak season fulfillment approach can help you get an edge in the final mile.

Question 1: Peak-season goals

The holiday season comes at the same time every year, but your definition of success can change. What’s your top peak season priority this year? 

A. We’re eager to take on a peak season surge and reach more customers this year than ever before.

B. We’re running lean this peak season and want to succeed without adding to our expenses.

C. We’re aiming to grow in customer base, order quantity and order size this peak season.

D. We have our eyes on maximizing order accuracy and efficiency this peak season.

Question 2: Capacity

You have a product in one location and a customer somewhere else. Does your business have the right last mile logistics in place to offer that customer same- or next-day delivery?

A. Usually, but we’re looking for ways to become more nimble so we can handle rush orders or big and bulky orders that our standard fleets can’t easily accommodate for same- or next-day delivery.

B. Yes, mostly. We’d love to get more out of our in-house fleet and/or usual carriers to keep us more efficient and speed up deliveries.

C. Not really. Our existing fleet and carriers are strained, especially for orders over a certain size, but we don’t want the expense of adding, maintaining, and insuring more vehicles of our own.

D. Sort of. We have reliable carriers, but repositioning inventory between warehouses and retail locations is tricky.

Question 3: Growth plans

Finding your sweet spot is one thing, but no business wants to stagnate. Which approach best describes your company’s growth plans?

A. Serve a wider market. We want to expand our footprint into new geographic markets.

B. Increase our efficiency. We want to maximize every investment, customer interaction and sale.

C. Get deeper into our current market. We want to make more sales in the areas we currently serve.

D. Give customers more options. We want to give customers access to more inventory, faster, and minimize loss along the way.

Question 4: Fulfillment mix

It’s important to have delivery partners you trust, but they also need to help you achieve your goals. If you were to add another inventory logistics partner to your mix, what would their superpower be?

A. Flexibility. The traditional last-mile carriers we use cover our existing markets, but a more agile partner can help us feel out new territories and offer different service offerings for our customers. 

B. Efficiency. We’re always looking for new partners that can keep our final-mile delivery costs as low as possible so we can invest more in other areas of the business. 

C. Capacity. We want to grow our business footprint, but our current carriers can only handle so much inventory over so many miles. 

D. Chain of custody. We have a lot of inventory that’s constantly in motion. It’s important for us to be able to keep track of it all through improved inventory logistics.  

Question 5: Technology adoption

Your business is online and so are your customers. What’s the most valuable feature or benefit a logistics partner can offer in an online platform?

A. Robust communication with drivers across our entire service area, no matter where it grows.

B. The ability to batch multiple deliveries so we can get the most out of our work with each driver.

C. On-demand access to drivers no matter what type or size delivery our customers request.

D. Visibility into the timeliness and accuracy of order hand-offs, deliveries and return pickups.

RESULTS:

Mostly A’s

You already have several fulfillment options in place, but your current providers are pretty traditional. Crowdsourced final-mile delivery adds flexibility on top of existing resources to help ensure you’re not leaving any business on the table. The drivers using Roadie’s platform are available to handle those final-mile deliveries where and when you need them, whether you’re looking for a better way to handle on-demand delivery requests or trying to expand into a new market this peak season.

Mostly B’s

Maximizing your bottom line by running an efficient operation is key to your success during peak season (and any time of year). Adding a crowdsourced delivery solution like Roadie to your last-mile logistics offerings gives you easy access to features that help you use your final-mile resources wisely every time, like batched and routed deliveries and reverse logistics/inventory repositioning.

Mostly C’s

Your order volume is increasing and you need more capacity to stay a step ahead, but maintaining an in-house delivery fleet isn’t in your peak season playbook this year. Crowdsourced delivery is an ideal solution that helps you scale capacity without adding overhead. Roadie’s crowdsourced delivery platform lets you tap into a network of on-demand drivers nationwide so you don’t have to pay for vehicles you don’t need.

Mostly D’s

Your fulfillment partners are serving you well for deliveries, but stronger inventory logistics will be essential to meeting customer needs this peak season. Crowdsourced delivery solutions like Roadie make this possible by helping you bring loads wherever they’re needed. Chain of custody is also on your radar, so visibility into order handoffs and delivery tracking through the Roadie app will keep your team informed every step of the way. 

Roadie fits every peak season personality

As experts in on-demand last-mile logistics, Roadie can help your business achieve its goals during peak season — and all year long. A vast network of drivers across the country will help you quickly get deliveries and inventory wherever they need to be, even for big, bulky and heavy orders. 

Built-in features like batched and routed deliveries, order tracking and delivery confirmations ensure the speed and visibility you need for every order. Roadie can even help with at-home returns pickup long after the peak shopping season passes. The best part? It’s easy to implement. 

Read on for more tips from Roadie’s peak season playbook so you and your customers can have the best holiday shopping season yet.