5 Best practices for better last-mile Fulfillment and faster delivery this holiday season
E-commerce platform Amazon has raised the bar high with last-mile fulfillment within two days of delivery and it is getting hard for other online retailers to keep up. And it’s getting even harder, with the fast-changing customer expectations.
Customers today have many options to choose from. So, delivering ordered goods to the customer within the given timeframe at the last mile is crucial for Shopify retailers to ensure customer satisfaction and retention.
So, here are the five tried and tested practices that can help you as a Shopify retailer to meet the needs of your customers at the last mile for every order.
1. Fulfillment by Location
As a Shopify retailer, you know how technology can help you in providing seamless customer experiences and earn customer loyalty. You can ensure last-mile fulfillment and delivery flexibility by adopting a modern OMS system. The new age Order Management Systems streamlines the entire process and lets you get an accurate view of your inventory to inform shopping origins across warehouses, physical stores, third-party, or distribution centers.
So, whenever a buyer places an order, the OMS immediately triggers fulfillment as per customers’ preference whether it’s Curbside delivery or expedited delivery. By this, not only you can deliver goods faster but also can lower shipping costs.
2. Maintain Transparency with Customers
During the holiday season, last-minute shopping is quite common. You wouldn’t like to turn away customers for non-availability of goods on those last crucial days.
So you need to update the stock position on your site so that customers can clearly see if their required item is available and you can avoid any unpleasant customer experience.
With OMS, you can get a transparent view of your stock availability as data is constantly updated for exact inventory locations and levels. The system will navigate through every step of the fulfillment process to check
- If the order is picked and packed
- If the Order is in transit
- And Shipping Delay, if any.
This way, you can maintain inventory and transparency with your customers without fuss.
3. Third-party Shipping Integration
Integrations with third-party vendors are essentials to ensure last-mile fulfillment. OMS systems with open API capability lets you integrate with third-party shippers so that you can compete with big names such as Amazon, Walmart, etc. Shopify fulfillment Network or Salesforce Fulfillment network helps you connect every step in the post-purchase journey right from shipping, tracking optimization to fulfillment, and beyond.
4. Data and Analytics
Most Fulfillment Network uses AI to provide recommendations to customers matching their last purchase by keeping your inventories close to your customer and saving time and cost both. With Fulfillment Network using the power of AI, you can anticipate the peak days and ensure that your inventory is staged in the right locations.
5. Offering flexibility in different circumstances
The new Order Management System allows you to turf off certain fulfillment options so that you have the flexibility to choose where to deliver. You can also choose to use your Loyalty data to find out your privileged customers and offer them access to your larger inventory or faster delivery facilities.
Wrap Up
To sum up, those were the strategies you can adopt to speed up your last-mile fulfillment process and win over your customers as well.
Also, for a streamlined process, you may check out our work order management app Shopify Made Easy to seamlessly integrate your Shopify store’s data with Salesforce CRM in real-time. If you are interested in knowing more about the app, You may schedule a demo from the industry experts.
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