Retailers often center capacity, inventory and customer experience during peak season planning, but overlooking the financial impact of their delivery strategy can leave them struggling to find ROI for their efforts.

Surges in order volumes, especially around holidays and other high-demand events, bring with them higher customer expectations for fast, quality service. This can create higher stress for retailers without an effective delivery strategy, but the right same-day delivery solution can generate measurable business value through lower delivery costs, increased sales opportunities and improved operational efficiency.

Peak season is not just a single end-of-year push anymore

Traditionally, retailers have had one major demand surge to plan for all year: Christmas and the final quarter leading up to it. But most retailers don’t experience a single peak season anymore. Instead, they see lots of hills and valleys throughout the year, starting the ramp-up as early as July. Summer sales, back-to-school shopping and other events can all create mini-peaks before the big holiday push.

Additionally, consumers expect more from retailers, especially when it comes to speed of delivery. They’re also looking for these options for big and bulky items they either can’t or don’t want to pick up themselves.

In this environment, a rigid delivery strategy designed for one big capacity surge can leave retailers scrambling to keep up with surges during the rest of the year, rather than easily scaling up and down to meet fluctuating customer demands.

Same-day delivery: Peak season predicament or revenue generator?

Customers are clear: Same-day delivery as an option is important, even if they’re not currently making a same-day purchase at that moment. They see it as a trust signal, and nearly three-quarters of consumers consider it when deciding where to make a purchase.

For retailers with a rigid or inefficient delivery strategy, the push for same-day delivery options (and for including big and bulky items) may have them reaching for the antacid bottle. But there are some major benefits for retailers who get this right, including:

• Higher revenue. A same-day delivery option can encourage a customer to click the checkout button. Expanding those offerings to include big and bulky items can increase sales even more by offering fast delivery on more SKUs.
• Higher conversion rates. Seeing a same-day delivery option is a trust indicator for the majority of consumers. Retailers who offer it see cart abandonment numbers drop.
• Higher per-order revenue. There are several factors that can lead to more per-order revenue, and one strategy is requiring a minimum order value to qualify for same-day delivery.
• More repeat purchases. Brand loyalty is critical in an always-competitive environment, and it’s much easier to achieve when customers receive their orders faster.

These benefits drive immediate financial impact. More than half of surveyed Roadie customers saw a return in less than three months.

On-demand same-day delivery boosts peak season ROI without the operational headaches

In order to achieve the above benefits, retailers must carefully consider the quality of their same-day solution. In a recent survey of retail supply chain and logistics executives, respondents expected a median 93.5% on-time delivery rate, but were only getting a median 80% for same-day delivery. That gap, especially during high-stress peak seasons, represents a lot of either very happy or very disappointed customers, and related rates of customer service tickets.

The answer for a growing number of businesses is a crowdsourced last mile with a provider like Roadie that can reach 97% of the U.S. population (reaching both rural and urban service areas) and can handle both standard and big/bulky deliveries. A bigger footprint means retailers can cut down their number of last mile providers and offer customers a more reliable delivery experience.

Same-day delivery, including for big and bulky items, creates huge opportunities for retailers to tap into the consumer desire for faster, more efficient delivery. By implementing a crowdsourced solution, forward-thinking retailers can more easily balance customer expectations with profitability, even during the busiest times of year.

Want to check out Roadie’s results in action? See how Blain’s Farm & Fleet offered (and delivered) additional delivery options for holiday customers.