Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become a crowded battleground for e-commerce retailers. However, rather than fighting over customers and dollars spent, businesses are now competing in the last mile for the ability to get items to customers fast, efficiently, and seamlessly. 

2020 was ruthless: FedEx, UPS, and small carriers had to turn customers away as they braced for the surge of online orders. UPS had to lease 14 new aircrafts and hired 100,000 additional people to help manage peak levels. And FedEx Ground broke previous records with 20 million packages picked up on Cyber Monday.

Small businesses just haven’t been able to compete. They don’t have the resources or budget to negotiate with carriers, hire additional delivery drivers, or offer faster shipping. To complicate matters, the unprecedented labor shortage means that already-scarce resources are all being used up by big businesses, forcing small businesses to scramble to hire their own drivers or use local services to catch up.
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Last mile delivery software, like Shipday, has leveled the playing field, giving small businesses a way to not only compete, but offer a superior delivery experience for everyone involved: businesses, drivers, and customers.

two business owners folding clothes and boxing items
Support local deliveries with Shipday and Zapiet

Shipday, via Zapiet, offers fast, local delivery for your Shopify store. Our dashboard and mobile app make it easy for you to support on-demand deliveries or scheduled orders, identify the fastest delivery routes, track drivers in real time, receive proof of delivery, and allow customers to leave delivery feedback in real time. 

With our local delivery API, you can leverage third-party delivery services to find delivery drivers or add additional delivery resources during peak times. And, if you you have your own in-house drivers, we have the tools you need to streamline the entire delivery operations.

To integrate your Shopify store with Shipday via Zapiet: 

First, you will need:

  • An active Shipday account, and an API key
  • Your Zapiet - Pickup + Delivery locations need to have delivery date and time picker enabled

Then: 

  1. Create a Shipday account
  2. In Shipday, go to the Integrations tab
  3. Copy your Shipday API key
  4. In Shopify, go to Apps > Zapiet - Pickup + Delivery > Settings > Last Mile Delivery
  5. Find Shipday, and click Activate Shipday
  6. Enter your Shipday API key, and click Activate Shipday

Your Shipday integration should now be activated. For additional information and screenshots outlining this process, please read our support article.

shipday screenshot on store pickup and delivery settings
Delivery best practices during the holidays

So much time and energy goes into the holiday shopping season, but primarily from a marketing perspective. While the marketing piece is a huge part of the puzzle, make sure to devote just as much resources to the last mile. After all, the best marketing campaign will fall flat if customers aren’t able to reap the benefits.

Here are three delivery, best practices during the holiday rush:

  1. Choose the right mode of transportation: Deliveries don’t always have to involve cars. In fact, alternative forms of transportation can make deliveries quicker in cities where finding parking is a hassle. E-bikes and scooters are perfect for maneuvering quickly just about anywhere. Walking and bicycling also work well in busy urban areas (and bicycling has the added benefit of lower insurance rates compared to cars and scooters).
  2. Be strategic about planning routes: Online retailers meet customers’ delivery expectations only 50% of the time, according to a Home Delivery Shopping Survey, conducted by EMarketer. The pressure to meet customer demands is even greater during the holidays, so be strategic about your delivery zones. Consider delivering to dense urban neighborhoods or limit your delivery area so you can bulk deliver items to multiple customers. In addition, take advantage of route planning features that can plan the most optimal routes directly on Google Maps and share instantly with drivers.‍
  3. Solicit customer feedback: The delivery experience matters even more during peak times like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Customers are eager to receive their goods or anxious about getting a gift in time for the holidays. While delivering packages on time is a huge part of a positive customer experience, the overall delivery experience can be just as impactful. This refers to everything from how you communicate to a delivery delay to the dispatcher’s demeanor when he or she interacts with customers. Make sure to solicit customer feedback on each and every delivery, allowing them to say if a delivery was positive or negative and leave a comment (ideally, your dispatchers can see these comments and take action).
man folding clothes into a box for delivery
Democratizing the last mile

Shipday's, mission is to democratize access to easy and cost-efficient deliveries for small businesses so they can operate more competitively. By offering the same technology infrastructure that larger, on-demand delivery companies use at a fraction of the cost, small businesses are finally able to compete at a much larger scale—offering personalized, instant delivery experiences anytime during the year.

Shipday is one of the last mile delivery courier partners that integrates with Zapiet - Pickup + Delivery from Zapiet.