Is Next Day Delivery Feasible For Small Businesses To Offer Their Customers?
Next day delivery is just one of the many delivery options currently being offered by some of the leading e-commerce sites and cheap parcel delivery couriers to the general public. For small businesses, fighting to keep up with their larger competition is, therefore, proving to be difficult. Without the budget or resources to throw at this in-demand service, many haven’t attempted to try. Here, we are going to look at whether next day delivery is feasible for smaller businesses or whether they may need to find another way to please their customers.
Customer Expectation
With the increasing number of companies offering next day delivery, this fast, efficient option is becoming the norm when it comes to buying online. As a result, smaller companies have to find ways to offer the same kind of speed of service in order to keep up. Meeting customer expectations can increase the overall customer retention rate for your business, but when the resources aren’t in place to keep up, managing this can be difficult. Businesses will then have to ensure that they have the workforce and the stock in order to accommodate the customer expectation and the overall brand as a whole or be prepared to offer something new and exciting to help gain and retain their business.
Work Force
The workforce of a business is something that is important to consider for any company, however, it’s particularly crucial to consider for those that are looking to compete with the larger e-commerce companies. These companies have an extremely large workforce that is often employed solely to keep up with this supply and demand. For a smaller company to be able to offer the next day delivery, they will need to have a larger workforce in order to accommodate, depending on the number of orders that they receive per day.
Stock
Stock can also pose a large problem when it comes to offering next day delivery for customers, as this can dwindle faster than you’re able to restock. Larger companies such as Amazon have substantial stock warehouses, often dotted around the country, that are kept constantly stocked to ensure that they have enough to suit the demand while smaller businesses may not have this kind of access. Therefore, it is important to consider the amount of stock that you have or can order at any one time to accommodate.
Beating The Competition
It can be beneficial to offer next day delivery if you are competing with stiff competition within the area, as this is something that can set you apart from them. If your pricing is right and you successfully offer next day delivery, you could be seen as being above the rest as you are able to supply much faster. However, this can also be a problem as previously stated above should your smaller business not have the workforce and the stock to deliver, as it opens up the possibility of another company taking over.
With all this in mind, it is important to note that next day delivery as a smaller business can be challenging. However, it is feasible should you have the workforce and stock to accommodate. It will take time to implement and get completely right, but when it is done properly it will help to put your business above the rest.
