With millions of Australians in lockdowns across the nation and non-essential retail closed, thousands of small businesses are starting to feel a growing need to pivot their businesses and start selling online.
The initial 2020 lockdowns saw many businesses simply closing their doors, not even attempting a door to door offering for fear of large commission fees, stressful logistics, lack of quality control, and potentially damaging relationships with their existing client base.
However, as lockdowns are extended and restrictions tightened, businesses of all sizes are waking up to the reality of making delivery work for them, and above all, making it profitable.
The truth is, any store with a product to sell can offer delivery: from florists to gyms, gift stores to bottle shops.
Make it profitable
With over 13 million Australians in lockdown, there’s an expanding market of people looking to buy online. Online sales in Australia have risen rapidly as a result of the pandemic, with data from the ABS showing an annual rise of 65.5 per cent from March 2020 to January 2021.
When switching to online delivery for the first time, it’s important to ensure that your pricing makes sense and remains profitable, after delivery costs such as vehicles, fuel, and driver salaries. Smart checkout technology is the answer here.
For businesses receiving multiple orders, but who don’t have their own fleet of drivers, smart software such as Zoom2u can help to batch your orders, thus reducing the cost per delivery. Nespresso, for example, offers time windows to consumers to receive the delivery, which allows drivers to pick up multiple shipments at any one time.
Make it quick and easy
Nothing impresses a consumer more than speed and efficiency, and these are two benchmarks that all retailers should be looking to excel in. By implementing faster deliveries, companies are speeding up the order cycle from their most loyal customers. The faster they receive an item, the faster they’ll need to order a new one.
Offering seamless services like this will guarantee a repeat booking, and drive profitability. Zoom2u’s technology identifies the closest drivers to each job, ensuring a competitive delivery speed that can even rival click and collect, and a price that makes it worth it.
Keep up the quality
If your business is known for its high-quality products or sparkling customer service, it’s important to figure out how to translate the same high standards with your online deliveries.
It is no longer enough to be on time, and in the right location. Consumer delivery expectations now include notifications for pending arrival, often to the hour, and real-time GPS tracking, to let customers know where and when they’ll receive their delivery. But in order to offer truly world-class deliveries, it also pays to think carefully about customer service.
If you own a bricks and mortar store your customers will be used to engaging with you, and this is something that you should try to emulate with your delivery drivers. Friendly service, clear and safe communication, and manners, will stand out from the crowd – especially since many customers have grown used to careless deliveries.
Recent news in Sydney reported 40 calls per day for delivery theft, some being snatched from doorsteps or left in the wrong hands. Ensuring that your delivery service has faultless, real-time communication properties built-in and real-time updates make delivery disasters such as this virtually impossible.
It is one thing to offer delivery, but it’s another thing altogether to do so efficiently, and with a memorable customer experience. With so many businesses now starting to pivot to online offerings, small businesses need to find ways to make their delivery experience stand out from the pack.
