The best online shops are able to deliver a parcel within less than eight hours. For many customers, this fact is still astonishing. How is it that a parcel is able to reach a customer in such a short time? We will answer this question in a moment. We will also highlight some of the key conditions that must be met for a parcel to arrive quickly.
If you run an online shop, you surely want the logistics in your shop to work perfectly. One element of this is fast delivery of ordered products. Until recently, a delivery time of up to 24 hours was such a desirable standard. Today, the world of e-commerce is speeding up and customers expect same-day delivery, and preferably in less than 8 hours. Such opinions are confirmed by a recent survey on the Polish e-commerce market conducted by Gemius:
What is interesting is that, as recently as last year, customers were more 'understanding' and a delivery time of up to 24 hours for parcels was appreciated by 44% of customers. But that is in the past, now such a time satisfies only 29% of those surveyed. The question arises, how are courier companies able to deliver a parcel so quickly?
How is it that the parcel reaches the customer so quickly?
First of all, let us emphasise that the parcel does not always reach the customer in a short time. In order for this to be possible within less than 12 hours, a number of conditions have to be met, both on the shop and the buyer's side. We will tell you a little more about this in a moment. Express delivery is primarily possible thanks to a well-developed transport infrastructure. The largest courier companies have thousands of branches, warehouses, vehicles and employees at their disposal. It all works together like a well-oiled machine.
See, for example, what this looks like for DPD, one of the largest carriers in Europe.
This company has at its disposal:
As a result, a parcel handed over to a courier today can even reach the customer tomorrow morning in some countries. Local couriers are doing even better in this field. In Poland, the express delivery service is provided, for example, by X-Press Couriers, CityCouriers and even inPost and UPS. In some situations, these companies allow same-day delivery.
However, as we have already mentioned, several requirements must be met for this to be possible.
WHAT CAN BE DONE TO ENSURE THAT A PARCEL REACHES A CUSTOMER QUICKLY?
First and foremost, you need to ensure that your packaging and handover system is efficient. The sooner your package is ready, the sooner it can be handed over to the courier, who can then deliver it to the recipient. To speed up the process of preparing orders for dispatch, it is worth using the platform provided by Way2Send. With this platform, you can easily find the right goods in stock, order the courier, pack the parcel and prepare the waybill. Your shop can save a lot of time this way.
Secondly, it is important what route the parcel has to take. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that a parcel sent from Zakopane to Kołobrzeg will arrive on the same day. Express delivery is usually possible within the largest Polish cities and conurbations. In November last year, the CCC group announced a new service, assuming the delivery of a parcel to a customer within just 60 minutes of placing an order. At present, the service is available in Warsaw, but it is soon to be expanded to other major cities.
A final point worth emphasising is the time it takes to send a parcel. The sooner an order "leaves" your shop, the sooner it will reach the customer. For orders shipped by midday, delivery on the same working day is possible. Receipt of the order by courier after 4pm will result in delivery on the next working day at the earliest.
Let's summarise briefly. If you want to offer customers short delivery times, take care of:
