Local delivery is not going anywhere! It’s a service that not only customers have loved but have found the service, one of the reasons they make a purchase. Delivery is a big component of any business, especially depending on the products you are delivering and all the logistics. Local delivery expands reach by giving you the ability to deliver quickly and affordably to a maximum radius.
With the world more connected than ever, delivery and getting products to a customer's doorstep is more important than ever when it comes to ecommerce. According to stats, “more than 70% of consumers cite convenience (77%) and free shipping (72%) as their top reasons to shop online.” Local delivery improves the customer's experience by removing shipping costs and reducing the risk of lost packages and delays. All of these are reasons why customers abandon shopping carts.
For local brick-and-mortar stores, curbside pickup is the perfect service for you to implement if you’re new to selling online and have limited staff and resources. After all, data shows that online shoppers have a 25% higher cart size when ordering and choosing local delivery or curbside pickup as an option. Local delivery also had the opportunity to create new ways to reach potential customers. Whether merchants are looking to see if local delivery is still a service they want to keep or if it’s a service they want to add on to their business, here is a helpful guide and insights to implement and succeed at local delivery.
Should I add local delivery?
Local delivery is an added service that can expand your reach to acquire new customers. Depending on your logistics and strategy, you can deliver in a speedy and affordable way. This can be based on a certain maximum radius, or to certain geographical areas from your brick-and-mortar store.
Deciding when it's time to add local delivery to your Shopify store can be based on a number of factors. It can be based on needing to reach more customers, expanding your reach in a new area or maybe your customers are asking for a delivery service. Another factor to decide when it's time to add local delivery is if you feel you can provide an upgrade in your customer service. By adding this service, you can really improve a customer's experience by removing shipping costs, adding a personal touch to deliveries and making connections with your community.
How you're going to deliver, is another item to include when deciding to make the leap.
- Will you need to integrate with third parties?
- Will you need a route optimisation partner?
- Who will be making deliveries?
- What is the maximum or minimum local delivery radius?
By answering these questions, you can begin to form your local delivery plan and decide if adding it to your business operations will be a game changer for your customers. Casa Flor Miami is a floral company based in sunny Miami, offering local delivery to certain zip codes. Through local delivery, they have been able to increase revenue and offer a delivery service customers can count on and love.
Getting Local Delivery Right
Plan your local delivery logistics and strategy to ensure you are offering a seamless service for your customers. Missing steps or a gap in your local delivery strategy is a bad experience for customers. Focus on expanding the steps that you answered when deciding whether to take the leap into adding this service.
The strategy plan should focus on tools that you will need, such as an app for your Shopify store that can handle tagging orders, inventory management and notifications for your customers to know when their orders will be delivered. On the background, these tools should work to create workflows and systems for your team to create orders and push out deliveries. No matter the size of business, working out every step will have you feeling confident in offering local delivery.
The Cupcake Room is an award winning cupcake shop based in Sydney, Australia. The Cupcake Room started with only a physical bricks-and-mortar store. Since creating their online store on Shopify and setting up local delivery their revenue grew up almost 500%. Their customers love the promptness of the same-day delivery service.
Packaging is Key
Branding is an important step to marketing your business and standing out above competitors. Part of the branding is the packaging. How a customer receives a package from your ness is equally part of the entire customer's journey. It doesn’t end after they click purchase. “52% of online shoppers receiving order’s in a custom package, are most likely to return to the same company.”
Packaging is important, especially when a Shopify merchant decides to deliver locally to their community. Add branding to your packaging, delivery boxes or kits, it will excite your customers to see the packages on their doorstep. Ensure your packaging is designed for your weather conditions, any bumps in the road and that makes sense for your industry and product.
Dough Dealers are a pizza shop in London that offers local delivery to its customers. Packaging is just as important as their pizza, meaning everything is branded with their logo. Dough Dealers add their branding to their merchandise, pizza boxes and delivery bags. This gives customers instant recognition and satisfaction when they see their delivered item on their doorstep.
The Advantages of Local Delivery
The customer is what prompted you to add local delivery, so always keep them in mind when it comes to making a process easier or when rethinking your strategy. Customers who find the local delivery experience confusing or difficult to order, will most likely lead to abandoned shopping carts. Lack of transparency or lack of inventory can impact the overall experience as well.
There are various factors that go a long way in providing a great shopping experience, from letting customers know specific delivery blackout dates, delivery from specific locations or product preparation time. All customizable points in your local delivery plan.
Ensuring team members on your business operations are fully trained on local delivery and understand the logistics behind it, is a great way to provide a five-star customer experience. This will create a process that can make sure the delivery runs smoothly from fulfillment to a customer’s doorstep. A notification system that ensures customers' orders are tagged and notified when their order is out for delivery, is part of the journey to providing a great service.
The Green Room Flower Company is a boutique florist based in Wanaka, New Zealand's South Island, working to create seasonal blooms for events and daily deliveries. Having local delivery as a service for their business means they can put restrictions on who can order during which times, which gives them enough time to have their flowers ready to be sent on the courier. “It has saved us so much time going back and forth to customers saying sorry we can't send that one today as you missed the cut off time etc. (so many hours saved in man power!)"
Advertise your Local Delivery
You’ve made the leap and added local delivery, planned your logistics and even branded your packaging, all while never losing focus of the real goal, to provide your customers with a great shopping experience. The final step is to of course, shout from the roof of your brick-and-mortar store, that you now offer local delivery. Check out our blog post on tips to promote your local delivery service!
Various Shopify merchants utilize different strategies to make sure their local delivery service is a success. Part of those strategies are offering exclusive discounts and deals when opting in for local delivery. Another is through using email newsletters, website popups and of course through social media channels. Video content, Instagram Stories and photos are a great way to get your customers and local community to know about your business.
Inspired Go is a Canadian meal delivery service that uses high quality content to advertise their local delivery service through Instagram and Facebook. This allows their community to learn how their delivery process works and become familiar with the service.
Connect with Experts
With the world more connected than ever, local delivery bridges shopping and offering a great customer experience. Local delivery is not going anywhere! It’s a service that not only customers have loved but has been convenient. To learn more about local delivery, reach out to our team who has helped more than 10,000 Shopify merchants across 150 countries get set up and succeed at local delivery.
