Rising ecommerce has created an ever-increasing need for businesses to deliver faster and less expensive shipping. Your business could risk losing loyal customers and more sales over the long run if your operations aren’t evolved enough to keep up with fast-evolving customer demands. Research shows that 38% of customers say they’ll never buy from an online seller again following a negative delivery experience, over 75% of consumers want same-day shipping, and more than 70% of customers cite convenience and free shipping as their top reasons to shop online. In the end, consumers see cheaper and faster delivery as a  requirement for continual loyalty. As a result, direct-to-customer (DTC) shipping has become popular due to its speed and accuracy that meets customer’s expectations. When done correctly, DTC can boost customer satisfaction and retention.

To minimize extraneous risks of delays and mis-shipments, the following best practices have been implemented by big retailers:

  1. Choose the best delivery routes – Selecting the fastest, most cost-effective routes can help your business reach top speeds during deliveries and helps optimize your routing. For example, Zebra’s Workforce Connect enables this by allowing teams to notify drivers in real-time of any route changes and priorities.
  2. Plan your deliveries in advance – Planning and scheduling your deliveries far out in advance can help you enhance the execution of order shipments. For example, planning deliveries only one week in advance leaves little room to make necessary changes when issues arise, so the execution of deliveries will be better the farther out you plan. Digitization solutions can help improve this process by maintaining higher order accuracy. To expand digitized performance in and out of the fulfillment process, rugged tablets have effectively helped in managing incoming orders and allocating them into correct time slots to reduce delays.
  3. Adapt to issues in real-time – When your business plans ahead, you give it adequate time to change plans when unexpected issues do come up. Troubles such as traffic and weather conditions can turn small stops into longer delays if you don’t have the right solutions to help your delivery drivers.
  4. Prioritize delivery stops – Prioritizing and ordering stops appropriately ensures that you reach all of your customers as quickly and efficiently as possible. A vital component of this is accurately setting the stops along delivery routes so delivery drivers deliver as many deliveries as possible while on their way to their ultimate destination. Drivers can communicate more effectively on their delivery routes with enterprise touch computers like Zebra’s TC72. The TC72 comes equipped with higher WiFi ranges and speed while using less battery power, so drivers can stay connected for longer periods.
  5. Integrate forward logistics with reverse logistics – If you already have a delivery driver going to a certain area to drop off products, it doesn’t make sense to send another driver to a nearby destination to pick something up. Combining pick-ups with drop-offs cuts your travel and planning time in half.

Optimize your DTC shipping with Spencer and Zebra to redefine customer satisfaction and sales. Contact us today to learn more about solutions that improve deliveries.