Same-day delivery is table stakes in modern retail, with giants like Walmart, Amazon and Target now offering fulfillment in as little as 30 minutes. This evolution toward ever-faster deliveries has redefined consumer expectations, making speed a baseline rather than just a bonus.
For everyone else, it’s hard to fathom how to justify experiments with drones or sidewalk robots to fulfill customers’ orders. In that case, how can you even begin to compete with these retail giants?
It might feel like you're always playing catch-up in a race you didn’t sign up for. Unfortunately, many businesses don’t have the resources to build out massive infrastructure or experiment with cutting-edge tech.
But here’s the good news. With the right tools — specifically crowdsourced delivery combined with smarter cross-docking — you can offer your customers the speed that those large-scale retailers have conditioned them to expect.
Last-mile delivery platforms like Roadie tap into a network of independent drivers who pick up and deliver orders as soon as they’re ready, often in just a few hours. The crowdsourced model helps level the playing field, giving retailers of all sizes the ability to match — or even beat — the delivery windows of larger competitors. Rather than relying on traditional carriers bound by strict routes, high shipping costs and rigid order cutoff times, crowdsourcing allows you to offer on-demand service tailored to your customers’ schedules and expectations.
Roadie has developed a method for using cross-docking in a new way. Cross-docking is a time-tested method for cross-loading inventory from supplier trucks directly into outbound trucks to minimize time in the warehouse. At a RoadieXD™ cross-dock facility, however, truckloads of last-mile delivery orders get cross-loaded from sender delivery trucks and batched into outbound driver vehicles for immediate delivery along an optimized suggested route. This method allows you to move high volumes of outbound, same-day orders quickly and effectively without bogging down your own warehouse loading dock.
This method is particularly effective for managing tight delivery windows and when handling oversized items, like sporting goods or specialty products for which time is of the essence, like meal kits and prescriptions. As long as there’s a warehouse within 100 miles of a Roadie cross-dock, Roadie enables same-day delivery while accommodating extended order cutoff times.
Megaretailers aren’t letting up on their pursuit of ever-faster delivery. In April, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a shareholder letter, “When we promise faster delivery times, customers complete purchases at a meaningfully higher rate and shop with us more frequently.”
Cross-docking combined with crowdsourcing is a major win for retailers who haven’t built out a nationwide shipping arm and are looking for actionable solutions that will help them boost customer retention. RoadieXD™ helps provide an easy, fast, personalized delivery experience, all while balancing costs on the retail side. The Roadie platform gives any size business the ability to achieve:
You don’t need high-tech delivery drones or sidewalk robots to meet consumer demand for a same-day delivery option. What you do need is a last-mile delivery platform that helps you stay agile and ready to scale.
Interested in exploring how modern cross-docking solves retail’s biggest last-mile challenges? Contact Roadie to see how we can help.