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Same day shipping – New standard for ecommerce businesses

What is the primary reason that resists you to shop online? That you cannot check goods physically, or you cannot take it to your home straight away after choosing. Former needs some magic to happen but later have already taken the ground.

Same day shipping – New standard for ecommerce businesses

Thursday May 04, 2017,

6 min Read

Same-day shipping is the new buzzing concept that is attracting more buyers to the online stores. The e-commerce giants like Amazon, e-bay, and Flipkart have already started it, and their customers have tasted the sweetness of it so far.

Same Day Shipping – New Standard For Ecommerce Businesses

Same Day Shipping – New Standard For Ecommerce Businesses

The services like Amazon’s “Prime Now” and Flipkart's “Same-day Guarantee delivery” has proven that retail goods can be shopped, shipped and delivered on the same day and in many cases, within a few hours. This innovative initiative will surely become a benchmark in near future and set new standard norms for e-commerce business.

How is same-day shipping getting possible?

This obvious question comes to mind. How your expected delivery date changed to same day suddenly? Here are all the tech secrets that making it possible:

RFID - A huge time saver:

Traditionally, businesses use barcode to fulfill the orders and track delivery on the go but now RFID tags replace it. This technology has the advantage of scanning multiple items on same time with more accurate physical tracking. This transforms to fewer error-prone deliveries on time.

Automation - A key to faster shipping experience:

Intervention of robotics in the e-commerce sphere results in automating the complete shipping process from top to bottom. Right from picking products in a warehouse to delivering it to customer doorsteps, businesses is making all processes automated. Adding a future-gen thought to it – drones will be used to fly packages to the last mile and driverless, autopilot vehicle will ply on the road for a faster, accurate and safer shipping experience.

Google Express Concept:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Google_Express_van.JPG

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Google_Express_van.JPG

Unlike Amazon, Google has formulated its own way to provide same-day service. While shopping from Google store, it attempts to connect customers with nearest available outlets and eventually shipped the selected products by Google Shopping Express vehicles. With the possibility of higher success rate, many e-commerce businesses are looking forward to integrating this approach to their same-day shipping services.

Decentralized Warehouse:

Another value addition to the same-day delivery service is investing in the decentralized warehouse. Several e-commerce giants are establishing their distribution center in more places. This brings them closer to make next-day delivery as standard and close delivery as an option for many.

How same-day shipping benefits e-commerce?

We got feedbacks from our magento development clients that though it's very crucial task for e-stores operators to accomplish same-day delivery, but it also nurtures their business. For availing the product within a day, customers have to opt either to pay an additional charge for it or to activate some kind of paid subscription to utilize the same-day shipping services. This ultimately allows sellers to gain some extra credit on the account over the regular cost.

For example, Amazon’s same-day delivery services are free to its Prime members, who are paying nominal annual subscription fees. One can avail the urgent delivery without signing up for Prime service by paying some extra cost per order.

This not only monetizes the market but also brings a competitive edge over the other retailers who refrain from providing same-day delivery. Therefore, if you are in the game and playing it safe, the ball will always be in your court.

Immediate delivery – Retailers, Logistics, and Customer perspective

Retailers Perspective:

Same-day delivery is an open opportunity for all retailers to attract customers who wanted items instantly. Online retailers are the key of B2C shipments. In addition, with one-day delivery, they can increase their share of sale and increase their product categories that can easily trade and ship in a day.

Major challenges for the online retailer are to provide real-time visibility across warehouse, minimal fulfillment time and on-time last-mile delivery. This all need to club while bringing the cost down to customer’s interest. The same-day delivery has improved customer loyalty and reduced the returns rate that significantly adds value to their operations and financial results.

However, to seize benefits, retailers have to implement subsidies on same-day delivery in order to retain customer interest at a minimal affordable price. This would be necessary because customers nowadays habited of a free shipping business model.

Logistics Perspective:

Same-day delivery is a more teamwork than an individual play. The quick turnaround process of one-day shipping requires a new type of logistic network because the current process is not complying at a larger scale.

The speed at which the delivery is required inevitably adds extra costs for the logistics services. The parcel logistics, courier brokers, and multi-channel retailers have to take the challenge and create their own solution to provide same-day delivery on a large scale while bearing less cost.

With growing online sale segments, parcel logistics are looking for alternatives for pickup and delivery that are flexible and faster. For this, companies need to strengthen their sorting hubs, vehicles, and IT support. Defining a certain window to place the order so that Logistics Company can plan their source to a destination network is very helpful in streamlining the process.

Many multi-channel retailers are creating their own fleet in order to ship on the same day and gain complete control over the process.

Consumer Perspective:

Consumers are gradually getting familiar with the same-day delivery, and many of them have already used instant delivery option. The large part of customer base thinks that immediate shipping fulfills their need, and has shown the willingness to pay the reasonable cost as well.

After the introduction to same-day shipping concept, e-commerce world has observed a significant increase in the conversion rate from viewers to buyers. The consumer is attracted more towards at the moment delivery if it cost around 5-7% of the basket value. However, at the end, customers who have tried and satisfied with the close delivery option are not looking back to go.

Same-day delivery will be new normal shipping trends in the e-commerce business. The standards of urgent shipping offer immense potential for retailers and logistics, and convenience to the customers.

However, the complexity involves in accomplishing the task of immediate delivery keeps the price a level above in comparison to standard delivery.

In Nutshell

Finally, same-day shipping is the new standard for an e-commerce business that has immense opportunities and challenges. The rise in the e-commerce adoption and urbanization has shown the success path to the evolution of urgent shipping in every potential habitat.

The big fish in the ocean like Amazon, Alibaba, E-bay, Flipkart, and Walmart are already into the game – giving tough fights to set the best promising close delivery services.

Same-day delivery is gaining a lot of attractions and changing the way people shop digitally. It is combining the convenience of online shopping with the physical retail purchase. The intelligent minds behind the screen are working hard to make instant delivery as a standard delivery option for the masses.

The e-commerce businesses are nurturing this vision and welcoming the innovative delivery ideas that add value to their immediate shipping model. Same-day delivery is a game changer and expected to take the e-commerce boom to the next level.

Author Bio:

The author is Harshal Shah, CEO and founder of Elsner Technologies, a professional Wordpress development Company - global IT consulting firm. He is a tech evangelist with a reputation to provide optimum solutions for business automation and solving real life problems with the power of IT.