As we head closer to the Christmas period, many of us will realise this – we value convenience! Whether it’s gifts, food, or drink, we want those online orders to be delivered fast without breaking the bank. We already know most online shoppers are prepared to abandon a shopping cart in favour of a retailer who offers same-day or next day deliveries. In fact, we’re becoming accustomed to the increasing number of retailers and delivery services offering a range of cost-effective delivery options.
The speed of our deliveries hinges on those last mile delivery processes – that’s the movement of goods from a fulfillment centre to their final destination. That’s why so many retailers and delivery services have been focussing their innovative efforts on the last mile delivery environment to win and retain customers. Here are four emerging trends currently disrupting the last mile.
Proximity to inventory
Many retailers are striving to bring their inventory closer to the consumer. Why? Simply because proximity to the consumer means shorter delivery times and, of course, lower costs! Amazon is a great example of a retailer doing exactly that. While the retailer is brand-new to Australia with only one Melbourne distribution centre (so far) – they’ve been busy increasing the number of distribution centres right across the US and Europe.
But what about smaller retailers that can’t afford this costly infrastructure? Well – there’s a solution for them too. Point-to-point delivery services such as Go People enable smaller retailers to store and manage their inventories onsite, so goods are taken directly to the recipient without passing through third-party distribution centres that cost unnecessary time and money.
Optimising transport with external data
When it comes to the delivery journey itself, the days of manual route planning and unpredictability of traffic are over. Now, real time data and technology affords delivery drivers the benefit of knowing exactly where congestion lies on the roads while automatically plotting (or recalculating) the quickest and fastest route based on the data.
Go People has developed its own ground-breaking routing algorithms which even calculates and plots the fastest route for multiple deliveries. These algorithms will not only plot routes around heavy traffic, but they’ll also consider the difficulty of delivery locations (such as hospitals) so accurate delivery times can be provided to all recipients on the delivery run.
Predicting consumer behaviour
While in it’s in the early stages of development, digital technology and data collection is set to contribute a great deal to the optimisation of inventory management. By better understanding and predicting consumer buying patterns, retailers can distribute goods across their supply chain accordingly. This means retailers can develop local networks to get the goods closer to the consumer ahead of time for faster, cheaper deliveries.
Crowdsourced labour
You’ve guessed it, Go People is a great example of how crowdsourced labour can really improve the last mile delivery process. Thanks to the rise of smartphones and cheap data, our huge database of registered delivery runners can use our Go People app (much like Uber) to accept delivery jobs as they become available. This triggers a fast and seamless process whereby goods can be immediately picked up from the sender and taken direct to the recipient via the fastest route. And because there are no overheads from third party distribution centres – costs are rock bottom.
Crowdsourced labour delivery models will be fundamental to reshaping last mile deliveries – especially for smaller retailers. This is because, unlike traditional courier services, it doesn’t rely on filling a few large vehicles with hundreds of packages – nor does it rely on sheer volume to keep costs low. Instead, Go People’s delivery runners will handle anything from one to hundreds of packages on demand. This results in fast, frequent deliveries at predictable prices right throughout the peaks and troughs of trade.