If you’re a business selling physical goods online then delivery services will no doubt be a big factor in your customer service offering. With so many companies now offering everything from same day delivery to click and collect, how do you know which options to choose that both work best for your business and also maintain your edge over your competitors to keep customers returning?
Location
Unless you have stores in a number of locations that you can control, you’re going to be bound to working with a network of third-party stores that offer storage services for parcels to be delivered to and then collected from (and you’ll still need a courier to get them there in the first place). Not only will you be paying for the privilege of using their store as a pick-up point (a cost you’ll either need to envelop or put onto the customer), you’ll also have no real sense of whether that store offers good customer service to your customers who visit to pick up their parcels.
The other thing to consider with location is serving customers in bigger towns or cities will give them lots of options for collect locations (especially if you work with a third-party network). Customers in more remote locations though may struggle to find a convenient collection location, so in this case using a courier service will mean the item can be delivered to their door.
Customer Service
Customer service is a massive factor to consider when getting your products to the end customer and a service like Click and Collect can cause problems when it’s out of your control to how that customer will find the service when they arrive. Also, things like opening hours and unforeseen closures are again out of your control.
Speed of Delivery
By working with a courier company, you can offer a range of timed delivery options at varying prices, from standard to next or same day delivery for additional costs. Click and Collect will typically be a slower delivery service for the end user as it means you’ll have to get the parcel to the collect location before the customer can get it, and let’s be honest, you’re only going to pay a courier to deliver it quickly in that instance if you’re putting the cost onto the consumer (either as an extra delivery cost or by marking up your product range). Either way, you could lose a sale because this could make you less competitive on price.
Bulk Pricing
Courier companies will often offer bulk pricing discounts if you use their services exclusively or place a lot of orders through them. this in turn can mean you either make a better profit or pass the savings down the line to pricing/cheaper delivery options for customers, giving you more of an edge in the marketplace.
Overseas Orders
It’s definitely easier to find a good courier who offers overseas delivery than trying to work with a third party click and collect network in a different country, as you’ll have more control over when and where parcels are being delivered to and collected from. Tracking options will also be extremely important for anything going overseas as it will take longer and customers will want to know where their order is, something any reputable courier should offer as standard.
