In the world of retail, many seemingly unrelated products share a common bond: high-volume delivery surges.
Whether it’s Mother’s Day, the last week of August or any given Tuesday, almost every industry has its peak season. And that means every industry needs a solution to manage high delivery volumes, whether the need lasts for a couple of weeks or maintains a consistent schedule.
With the Bulk Upload feature on the Roadie platform, you get the ability to enter as many as 300 deliveries at once, saving you precious time that shouldn’t be wasted on data entry. You already know crowdsourced delivery will get orders where they need to be quickly. And with Bulk Upload, you can add an extra layer of efficiency to your optimized delivery plan.
How does Bulk Upload with Roadie work?
Getting up to speed with Bulk Upload from Roadie is quick and easy.
Step 1. Log into your Sender Dashboard and click “Bulk Upload” from the left-hand menu.
Step 2. Download the provided CSV template (a simple spreadsheet), and fill in all the necessary details for your upcoming deliveries. Pro tip: Starting with a report downloaded from your existing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system or order management platform can help reduce the data entry steps here.
Step 3. With all the fields filled in, save the file as a CSV and upload it back into the Bulk Upload portal. From there, the Roadie platform will instantly validate addresses, check your uploaded file for errors and tell you how to fix them.
Step 4. Review your order, including payment details, individual price per delivery and overall cost. When everything looks good to go, select “Create Deliveries” so Roadie can match your orders with drivers.
How to get the most out of Bulk Upload
Orders entered into the Roadie platform via Bulk Upload work exactly the same way as manually entered orders do. Roadie will batch and route orders for maximum efficiency, and details of every order are easy to track from your dashboard.
Having said that, there are a few details you should know to ensure Bulk Upload works for you.
Fill in every field. When entering your order information into the Bulk Upload CSV, Roadie experts recommend having data in every field and formatting each field properly to avoid errors. The correct formatting for dates, cut-off times, addresses, etc. is shown in the spreadsheet for easy reference. In fields that don’t apply to your orders, Roadie recommends entering “N/A” or similar, rather than leaving the cell blank.
Focus on scheduled orders. Bulk Upload isn’t the ideal solution for ASAP orders, or for businesses that want to place orders as they’re received. Instead, leverage Bulk Upload for orders with scheduled delivery days or in instances when you’ve applied a cut-off time.
Subscription boxes and meal-prep kits are great examples. Gather all the orders for the next delivery drop by a certain date, then add all the orders into Bulk Upload at once. This will enable all of your customers’ deliveries to hit the road simultaneously in time for their scheduled drop-off window.
Keep cut-offs in mind. Cut-off times are important to communicate. The responsive Roadie network lets you send orders any time it’s convenient for you and your customer; however, Bulk Upload works best when all orders are collected by a certain time and then sent together.
Holidays work well here. Let shoppers know the cut-off date or time for Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day flowers, then use Bulk Upload to send blooms for perfectly timed deliveries.
Bulk Upload keeps things moving
Effective and ultra-fast last-mile delivery is key to keeping your business running at peak efficiency during delivery surges. Crowdsourcing helps you do that every day, but Bulk Upload is the added tool you’ve been looking for to optimize order processing.
When a delivery surge has a defined deadline, the Bulk Upload feature from Roadie lets you shave valuable time off your logistics to-do list. Not only do you eliminate cumbersome manual order entry when scheduling gigs, but the Roadie platform helps you identify missing details that could hold up your orders. Whether you’re helping your customers surprise that special someone with a floral arrangement or ensuring meal kits and subscription boxes hit doorsteps on time, Bulk Upload is here to make your life easier. Click here to get started with Bulk Upload today.
