When internet shopping first became popular, it was quite common for you to wait weeks for a package, and ‘fast shipping’ meant 3 to 5 working days. Nowadays, services such as Amazon Prime have changed peoples’ expectations, and when they make a purchase online, they expect it to turn up at their door the next day in most cases. While you may not be able to offer next day delivery, there are ways you can get deliveries to your customers faster, simply follow the tips below.
Work with delivery experts
The best way to speed up with your deliveries is to work with a third party to ensure your distribution process is properly set up and efficient. Working with Rhenus High Tech for example, is ideal for small businesses who need specialist delivery services for their products, especially those items that need special handling.
Have stock on hand
If you want to offer next day, or extremely fast delivery, then you need to have stock on hand. You can achieve this by:
- Creating extra space for your popular products
- Making sure you have extra stock for seasonal items
- Coming up with accurate sales forecasts
- Using an inventory control system to keep track
Ideally, if you have products in stock, you should aim to send them out the same day if people order before a certain time. This can be a challenge, you need to know how to stay productive even when you are very busy and stressed. However, getting parcels out quicker means you’re more likely to end up with satisfied customers.
Prioritise those who’ll pay for faster delivery
Many companies now offer free delivery, which usually means people will wait more patiently for their deliveries. But if you want to offer a premium service, you should consider charging for this, as it’ll show you which customers need to be prioritised. When people shop online securely on your website, at checkout, you might want to give them multiple options to help them decide whether they’re willing to pay for the fastest delivery.
Train your team
The best way to have a reliable delivery is to train your team to get things dispatched quickly and in great condition. Many warehouses employ people on zero-hour contracts, with little training, so it takes them longer to do their jobs.
Hire a quality team; quality warehouse assistance, quality managers,
even quality delivery driver. Find these where quality employees are
going to find work and find delivery driver work as well as other
shipping and moving company related employment.
It’s important that people are properly trained, so they can be as efficient as possible. For starters, make sure they know their way around the warehouse and can find the goods easily to despatch them. Also, make sure they have all the tools they need to easily pick and pack goods to get them out as quickly as possible.
There are many ways you can improve your delivery speeds and ensure people get their parcel as quickly as possible. It’s becoming more common for people to expect their parcel within a couple of days, so even if you usually offer standard delivery, you should aim to improve your delivery speed and see how it affects your customer satisfaction ratings.