Driving improved delivery standards in the age of instant gratification

By Leigh Moody, UK Managing Director at SOTI. 

In today’s increasingly competitive retail landscape, delivery times are becoming a crucial differentiator between brands and often a key factor for consumers when selecting a retailer to purchase a product from. 

Consumers continue to seek instant gratification when making online purchases and ecommerce giants such as Amazon are driving increased expectations in terms of delivery times. 

According to research by Deloitte, the wide majority (83%) of shoppers consider fast shipping to mean delivery within two days or less¹. As a result, people are no longer happy to wait days or weeks for their goods and next day delivery is now considered a standard, rather than a luxury. 

With major disruptions to the UK’s roads, including adverse weather conditions, roadworks and even pesky potholes, logistics companies are now under more pressure to ensure customer demands are met. Last year the Beast from the East, which was deemed the most testing weather experienced in the UK for years, threw the country into complete chaos. Poor driving conditions prompted online supermarkets to cancel tens of thousands of orders and saw profits slump as a result. 

It is safe to say that the British weather is getting harder to predict. This February saw temperatures peak at 21oC in London, England sparking a rush in for goods usually associated with summer. In fact, Asda saw sales of swimwear by its clothing brand, George, were up 19%, sunglasses up 27% and shorts up 150% year-on-year². Conversely periods of freak weather may prompt consumers to postpone certain purchases until later in the year. 

Transportation and logistics businesses must ensure that they have an effective business mobility strategy in place across their entire supply chain in order to keep up with these increasingly challenging peaks and troughs in consumer demand. 

This viewpoint will explore: 

• Changes in consumer behaviour and their growing delivery expectations
• The need for brands to provide a quick and seamless delivery experience
• How adverse weather and road conditions are having a negative impact on distribution centres and logistic companies
• How business mobility systems can be used to streamline the delivery process and keep delivery drivers on the road 

_{[1] https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/industry/retail-distribution/holiday-retail-sales-consumer-survey.html?id=us:2el:3pr:dup3524:awa:dup:102616:
[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47370918}