It wasn’t so long ago that two-day delivery was considered the standard, while same-day delivery wowed customers and scared competitors. Now, in a world where customers can go online and browse, buy, and have pretty much anything they can think of delivered, fast delivery options have become an expectation. Especially since Amazon — which set that original two-day delivery expectation in the first place — is expanding same-day delivery to more than 4,000 smaller cities, towns and rural communities by the end of the year.
For many retailers, meeting those rising expectations is easier said than done. While consumer demands seem to keep trending upward, consumer sentiment still ebbs and flows, leaving retailers to deal with thinning margins and increasingly complex logistics needs. In the face of cost and operational challenges, finding an effective way to implement and scale same-day delivery can feel overwhelming.
The hard reality is that it no longer matters if you lack the right partnerships or infrastructure to support same-day delivery. If Amazon and your competitors have it, your consumers will expect you to have it too. Nearly a third (32%) of consumers in a recent Roadie survey said that they choose particular retailers because they offer the fastest delivery. What was once a competitive differentiator is now simply table stakes.
Worse, cart abandonment rates increase when consumers can’t find what they want among your delivery options. More than one-in-five shoppers will abandon their cart if the delivery is too slow. This can quickly spiral into a brand loyalty problem for a retailer when shoppers switch to competitors if they can’t get the experience they expect.
The last mile is already the most expensive leg of the supply chain. Same-day delivery is extremely challenging on top of the existing hurdles during this complex link. Most couriers and delivery companies were not built to move goods quickly enough to achieve same-day delivery at scale.
To keep up with growing consumer demand, retailers need flexibility across the board, including:
Implementing these practices and capabilities enables retailers to add flexible, same-day capacity without overextending resources or budgets.
This is where Roadie, a UPS company, can help you provide a competitive advantage on your same-day rollout. As an on-demand delivery platform, Roadie connects retailers with a national network of independent drivers spanning more than 30,000 ZIP codes, including those based in smaller cities and rural areas where same-day options are often limited.
Roadie helps businesses reduce complexity by adding flexible, on-demand, same-day capacity without complexity. As a result, retailers can expand into same-day delivery quickly while providing a host of delivery options to their customers at checkout.
Same-day delivery isn’t the competitive advantage it once was, and retailers that lack this capability will soon find themselves struggling to catch up or left behind entirely.
For more information on same-day delivery implementation in your operation, please reach out to Roadie. If you’re still not convinced same-day delivery is right for you, check out our research report: Is Same-Day Delivery Worth the Hype?