An effective ecommerce strategy means faster delivery, delighting your customers and encouraging them to keep coming back to your store. This, then, leads to higher sales and revenue.
But a growing number of ecommerce businesses also means more demand for last mile delivery services. It’s important to address the delivery challenges and streamline your strategy to meet the demands of consumers and reach your business targets.
Understanding the challenges faced by delivery companies today can guide you in choosing the right partner to deliver orders to your customers.
What is last mile delivery?
The ecommerce fulfillment process involves five basic steps:
- Receiving and securing inventory from the product manufacturer
- Storing and organizing products in a warehouse or fulfillment center
- Picking and packing products for delivery when customers make an order
- Shipping the items from the warehouse or fulfillment center to the buyer
- Processing returns of damaged or mis-shipped items, if necessary
The fourth step — ensuring that orders get to customers in a safe and timely manner — refers to last mile delivery. It’s the final stretch of ecommerce fulfillment.
Confirming orders and packing items are the easier part of the process. Last mile delivery generally uses up the most time and resources in order to achieve customer satisfaction. However, it doesn’t have to be complex and costly.
If you’re aware of last mile delivery challenges and when you partner up with a team that specializes in last mile delivery service, it wouldn’t be a concern at all.
8 challenges in last mile delivery
Just like your business, the logistics industry is also facing many challenges that can affect their operations and how they provide services to the shippers. Here are some of them.
1. Rising delivery costs
One of the biggest challenges of last mile delivery is the steadily rising delivery costs. This is due to various factors including labor, inventory, and maintenance.
But most importantly, nobody can deny the rising cost of fuel, which affects last mile delivery cost. This is particularly tricky for budget management if your ecommerce store offers free delivery and same-day delivery.
2. Traffic congestion in urban places
Let’s face it. Traffic congestion is not a problem that will go away overnight. It’s even more problematic in urban places where road repairs and blockages seem never-ending.
This is a major challenge in last mile delivery because it increases idle time and fuel inefficiency while decreasing driver productivity.
3. Access to remote areas and provinces
You want to make sure your parcels reach remote areas and provinces.
However, this could be a problem for your ecommerce fulfillment cycle if your logistics partner’s delivery routes don’t include farther and harder-to-reach addresses.
shipping to far provinces and remote areas.
4. Not enough riders or fleet
On-time delivery is one of the greatest contributors to customer satisfaction. So it would cause a major problem if there aren’t enough riders or fleet to deliver your parcels and complete last mile delivery on time.
This is a more common challenge for businesses with fast-increasing volume of orders.
5. No real-time parcel visibility
Although it’s important to choose a trustworthy logistics partner to help you with last mile delivery, real-time parcel visibility is just as important.
The transparency of a real-time tracking feature helps you and your buyer track the status of your parcel, providing ease of mind on both sides.
#NinjaTip: Ship with Ninja Van and you can track your parcels’ status in real-time through our advanced and easy to use Ninja Dashboard. Become a VIP Shipper today!
6. Shifting consumer expectations
Meeting customer expectations are more challenging today because consumers are pushing for shorter delivery times, minimal to no shipping charges, and responsive customer support.
These are entirely possible, of course, but you must also keep your profit margins in mind.
7. Seasonal demands and fluctuations
The Philippines has the longest-running Christmas season in the world. From the moment the calendar hits September 1 and as we inch closer to Christmas Day, you might forecast a strain on parcel delivery resources.
The same goes for other special events like Valentine’s and Mother’s Day. Apart from allotting extra budget to meet seasonal demands, you can manage customer expectations through openness about potential delays and surge pricing.
Follow our tips on Avoiding Shipping Problems During Christmas.
that can manage sudden demands.
8. Failed deliveries
Delayed and failed deliveries may occur because of fluctuating order volumes, varying distances between the warehouse and delivery locations, and other unforeseen circumstances, such as sudden weather changes and unexpected road congestion.
Wrong address verification could also cause failed deliveries which, in turn, affect your overall operational costs and profitability.
How Ninja Van takes care of your last mile delivery needs
You don’t need to worry about last mile delivery challenges when you team up with a logistics partner that’s committed to hassle-free deliveries, and helps you save on your shipping costs.
Ninja Van provides express delivery services to match your growing business needs. We understand the ins and outs of last mile delivery service. So while you hustle every day to meet your ecommerce targets and revenue goals, our team uses tech-driven strategies to make ecommerce fulfillment easier for you.
we’ll match your growing business’ needs!
Becoming a Ninja Van VIP shipper gives you savings and lower operations costs as you enjoy exclusive shipping rates and monthly rebates based on your monthly shipping volume.
Plus, we’ll ease your last mile delivery challenges through these services:
- A dedicated account manager for your shipping needs
- Nationwide delivery
- Real-time parcel tracking via the Ninja Dashboard
- Fast COD remittances and low COD fees
- Up to 3 free delivery attempts
- API integration and reporting via the Ninja Dashboard
As a Ninja Van VIP shipper, you’re working with an experienced ecommerce logistics team that will tackle the challenges of last mile delivery on your behalf, and ensure your parcels with reach your buyers safe and on time.
Become a Ninja Van VIP shipper today!
More tips to optimize your ecommerce fulfillment:
How 3PLs Help Your Ecommerce Business Grow
Ninja Van’s Shipper Rewards Program, Rebates and Perks
What is Ecommerce API Integration and Why Do You Need It?
