Consumer demand for instant gratification is changing the way e-commerce businesses are shipping deliveries.
These days, consumers are willing to pay more for same-day and overnight delivery options. To maintain a competitive edge in the market, businesses must respond to these demands with innovative express delivery options that provide consumers with complete control and visibility of their deliveries.
Technology plays a significant role in these innovative delivery options. Efficient package tracking applications are streamlining deliveries and meeting, if not exceeding, many consumer needs.
A consumer survey on parcel delivery options found that most consumers expect express and same-day delivery options when ordering online. And if they cannot receive this service for urgent items, they will be more likely to cancel their orders and shop elsewhere.
Control & Visibility
Businesses are now allowing customers to choose the delivery day and a one-hour or two-hour time slot for deliveries. Customers can even change the delivery time while the parcel is in-flight via their smartphones and computers using a company’s package tracking application. This gives customers complete control over their deliveries, personalizing their shopping experience to suit their own schedules. Having this control and visibility is extremely convenient since customers can now plan to be home for deliveries. Other convenient delivery options include:
- Sunday and evening deliveries to further meet customer demands;
- Safe delivery locations in the event that a customer suddenly won’t be home to accept the delivery; and
- Click & Collect parcel deliveries at train and gas stations.
Same-Day and Overnight Deliveries
The consumer survey found that a large majority (88 percent) of consumers would pay extra for one or two-day delivery services. It is clear that the convenience of same-day or overnight delivery options far outweighs the extra costs for customers.
The same research found that 55 percent of consumers surveyed expect same-day delivery or delivery within a day for items deemed a “distress purchase”—items that are urgently needed, such as parts to repair household appliances. Only 16 percent of consumers surveyed would be willing to wait for a distress purchase if they could not receive it in their requested time frame. Whereas, the remainder would not be willing to wait and would cancel the order (45 percent), purchase a different item, or shop somewhere else.
Future Benefits
By offering customers complete control, visibility, and convenience (with a choice of delivery dates and times, in-flight options, safe delivery locations, and expanding delivery days to evenings and weekends), businesses can meet growing customer demands and expectations. But these new delivery options wouldn’t be possible without the help of reliable package tracking technology.