Online shopping brought the concept of immediate product deliveries to customers’ offices and homes to life. However, it was COVID-19 that transformed this concept into a whole business. Thanks to last-mile delivery solutions, many companies could adapt quickly to the pandemic’s restrictions.
The effectiveness of your business’ delivery is determined by convenience and speed. The efficiency of your delivery process will decide whether the customer shops again from your business, so you have to choose between an in-house delivery team and hiring a delivery service to fulfill their orders. Read on to have a better understanding of how both work.
First things first: what is the difference between in-house and last-mile delivery?
In-house delivery is a system where you, as the business owner, obtain and manage all the resources required to fulfill your customers’ orders. These resources include a dedicated staff, a fleet of vehicles, and warehousing for storage. This system grants you complete control over logistics.
You may also hire a third-party service to deliver products to your clients. The trip from the warehouse to customers is called last-mile delivery, and your chosen service will have the staff and vehicles needed to facilitate it. Delivery services offer much more than last-mile delivery, such as digital management, storage, and drop-shipping.
Reasons why last-mile delivery is more appealing compared to in-house delivery:
- Last-mile delivery services will save you time.
Running an in-house delivery system will require warehouse management, inventory management, delivery fleet and dispatch operations, invoicing, order tracking, and customer support, which are a lot for a business owner. On the other hand, last-mile delivery solutions have the staff that will handle every delivery aspect of the delivery process, leaving you time to focus on other business issues such as marketing and staffing.
- Third-party services have the technological resources and knowledge ready.
A key aspect of successful same-day delivery across multiple locations is excellent IT infrastructure. Spreadsheets and emails may work for small stores with localized clientele. Still, if you are experiencing massive growth, you will need sophisticated tools such as warehouse management systems to track and optimize every delivery aspect. Third-party logistics firms have these resources ready, and you are assured of seamless communication among all parties involved in the delivery process during every step.
To cater to all the costs involved in the delivery aspect
If you are considering choosing in-house delivery, here are some of the costs you will incur:
- Warehousing
- Insurance
- Equipment such as forklifts
- IT resources
- Staff (salaries, benefits, personal accident and health insurance, training)
- Packaging
- Vehicle fleet
If you are a startup, these costs are daunting. A third-party company already has these resources, not to mention the lower prices they incur due to operating on a large scale. They are better placed to get you started with all the facilities required to impress your customers upon their first purchase.
Conclusion
Last-mile delivery solutions are the way for startups looking to impress clients using same-day delivery. They will save you time, reduce wrong delivery instances, and get your business started on a smaller budget.
Flash Box will take care of all your orders from the second they come in. Contact Flash Box today and talk to one of our delivery experts. You sell and let us deliver!
