Offering delivery allows small businesses to expand their customer base and better meet their expectations. In a way, it’s an obvious choice. You want to sell more.
There are many factors to consider when offering delivery, including managing shipping costs, hiring (and retaining delivery people), and using third-party apps. For delivery options that fit your business needs, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons.
Small business owners like you know that staying competitive means trying new things. That’s what being an entrepreneur is all about. With a variety of delivery management software options ranging from delivery services to small business software to third-party apps, it’s worth the effort.
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What Are The Best Delivery Options For Small Businesses?
The best solution depends on the specifics of your small business. Most businesses want a combination of the options and tools offered. Here are a few to consider:
Use Traditional Shipping:
The options you use for your mailings are appropriate for many types of products. Traditional carriers are a relatively affordable option for shipping orders, especially when they are not urgent. And most are reliable, although service may slow down during busy periods when people are on vacation, or when weather conditions are bad.
If the products your business sells can spend several days in transit without compromising quality, traditional shipping options should work well for you and your customers. However, traditional carriers are not as well equipped for deliveries that need to be moved quickly. If products need to be delivered to the customer within minutes or hours, you will need to look to other small business delivery options.
Employ Delivery People:
Some deliveries can’t wait. A pizza just out of the oven can’t travel through several cities for several days before being delivered to the customer, at least not without getting spoiled along the way. Small businesses that sell prepared meals, groceries or health care items that are temperature sensitive need a fast, on-demand delivery option. One way to do this is to hire your delivery people.
This has the advantage of giving you control over the delivery process. You know who will make the delivery and the delivery people’s working schedule. You can also establish policies on how they work, such as how to hand over delivery or store items during transport. You can also ensure the consistent representation of your brand. If you want the driver to use the company car with the logo on the side or wear the same uniform as your in-store employees, you can do that.
On the other hand, it is often more expensive. Hiring a new person always costs money. If you want to offer delivery during your regular business hours, you must pay for each hour covered by the driver, whether or not there are orders to be delivered during their shift. On less busy days, this can cost you.
Additionally, to keep the delivery service running smoothly, you will likely need to hire multiple drivers so that they cover their days off between them. And since small businesses in many industries are already facing staffing shortages, you might have trouble finding someone to hire.
Use A Third-Party Delivery Platform:
Third-party delivery platforms allow you to offer fast delivery without having to hire the drivers yourself. The third party allows you to use their network of delivery people and leave them with all the management that you would otherwise have to take care of.
Third-party delivery platforms offer flexibility. You don’t need to pay someone to cover every hour you offer delivery. Instead, you pay a fee for each order. This means that you only pay for orders delivered via the platform.
Even if you employ delivery people, working with a third-party delivery platform allows you to accept more orders. You can make more sales when it’s busy without keeping customers waiting. It also allows you to expand your delivery area easily. In your city, you could therefore reach more customers who live across town or in neighbouring suburbs.
Some third-party delivery platforms also offer nationwide shipping services in addition to local delivery. Expanding your customer base beyond your city is a good way to increase sales. How many additional orders could you accept by offering your services to customers in other cities and provinces?
And working with a third-party delivery platform doesn’t necessarily put your brand on the back burner. If you work with a supplier that offers white-label delivery, you can use the third-party platform to deliver orders that customers place directly on your website or app the same day. This will allow customers to associate their experience with your brand rather than the online customer activities of the third-party platform.
Use Delivery Software:
No matter which delivery option you choose for your small business, opting for the right delivery management software will make your life easier. Delivery software for small businesses offers a range of features to manage deliveries, identify savings, and automatically track all delivery-related sales.
The primary categories of delivery software for small enterprises are as follows:
- Delivery management software: This type of software includes features like route optimization to help drivers deliver orders as quickly as possible. It also offers access to driver apps to help your drivers track all deliveries assigned to them, in addition to order tracking which allows customers to see the location of their order in real-time.
- Multi-carrier shipping software: With every delivery sent using traditional shipping, this type of software automates the process of finding the best price. It can also allow you to track shipments assigned to different carriers at any time.
These two delivery software can help you improve the efficiency of your deliveries in a well-organized manner.
Five Benefits Of Using Third-Party Delivery Platforms:
Providing fast and affordable delivery service to customers is a challenge for many small businesses. Partnering with a third-party food delivery app platform allows you to share some of the work while still providing the level of service customers expect.
Sales Increase:
Offering delivery allows customers who cannot travel because they are too busy or tired, or who do not want to contract COVID-19, to have access to your products. It is also an opportunity to increase your sales.
For businesses that are starting to offer delivery options, working with a third-party delivery platform can allow them to get up and running faster by avoiding the need to hire their delivery staff. If you have your drivers, using a delivery platform may be just what you need to increase the hours delivery is offered or the area served. It allows you to attract more customers, which helps increase sales. Delivering more orders to customers on time means more potential profits for your small business.
Efficiency:
One of the biggest benefits of partnering with a third-party delivery platform is the ability to increase the efficiency of your operations. If you hire your fleet of delivery people, you are responsible for recruiting them and conducting background checks. And once they become part of the business, you will need to invest in the resources necessary to manage them effectively. Working with a third-party delivery platform gives you direct access to the platform’s network of delivery people, which can streamline your processes and give you the time you need to take care of other important tasks that need to be done.
Savings:
Using a third-party delivery platform costs something, but you could end up saving money on running your delivery service. Paying employees is one of the biggest expenses for small businesses. By allowing you to use drivers without having to hire new staff, delivery platforms help you reduce these costs.
Reliability:
A good third-party delivery platform usually has fairly stable uptime. You can therefore call on a delivery person when you need one. It can also offer uniform pricing options, which makes budgeting simpler and makes it easier for you to know what to expect each time you use its services.
However, the platform you use and your service area will determine this benefit. You need to consider the platform’s overall network size and pricing model. These are factors to include in your questions from the start to fully understand the service offered.
Order Tracking:
Any good delivery app for small business platforms offers order tracking. So you and customers can know where the delivery is at any time. Customers do not need to worry about the delivery time of their purchases. And for your part, you reduce the number of customer calls, while knowing that the items should arrive at the right time.
The third-party delivery platform may also use software that automates the process of accessing delivery data. This may include reports showing the number of deliveries, their duration, your revenue and costs, and reviews left by customers. This could save you time by not having to record this information yourself and identify areas for continuous improvement.
About the Author:Yokesh Shankar is a very experienced founder who has a proven track record in the Quick Commerce sector. As COO he oversees a unique capacity to incorporate operational efficiency and client-centricity in Transgenie technologies which has resulted in major decreases in delivery times, increased order fulfillment rates and overall customer happiness.
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