How Do You Manage Peak Delivery Periods?

With the holiday season now behind us, retailers have published their sales numbers for the period, analysts have pored over the results, and the winners and losers have been declared. The biggest annual retail peak is behind us, so the retail sector can relax for another year. Or can it?

According to Wallethub, Americans will spend $19.7 billion for Valentine’s Day this year which makes Valentine’s Day the third largest consumer holiday after Christmas and Mother’s Day. The same survey also revealed that 20% of all annual flower sales happen around Valentine’s Day.

And it’s not all about that last minute gift in the convenience store on the way home. The National Retail Federation’s Valentine’s Day Consumer Spending Survey said that Department stores will see the most traffic this Valentine’s Day (34.5%) and nearly one-third (31%) will shop at their favorite discount store while 27.9% plan to shop online.

For many retailers, Valentine’s Day can help boost first quarter sales, but with so many orders being concentrated in a short period of time, retailers once again need to scale up their delivery services to manage the delivery peak and avoid unhappy customers.

Whether Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day or Easter is your next biggest peak after Christmas, the same headaches arise. Here are a few things to consider next time you’re planning for your delivery peak:

• Clearly communicate your delivery process at the point of purchase. A choice of delivery options can increase sales and allows you to set expectations that your omnichannel fulfillment team can deliver on.
• Only promise what you can deliver. If you can only make 2,000 deliveries a day then ensure this daily limit is set in your systems accordingly. Delivery windows are then marked as unavailable and customers choose the next available slot.
• Make use of alternative delivery channels. The convenience of click and collect has increased in popularity. By encouraging shoppers to collect their own goods, you will reduce the pressure on delivery services.
• Allow the customer to choose their own time window. Using an omnichannel fulfillment system that offers time windows at the point of purchase, and allows customers to change their delivery up until the day of delivery, puts the customer in control and increases the chance of first-time delivery success.
• Continuously optimize your deliveries so that your resources are maximized. By using a routing and scheduling system that continuously updates routes, you can be sure that the delivery windows offered to the customer make the best use of your drivers and vehicles.
• Use automated customer notifications. Emails and texts throughout the order lifecycle will reduce the volume of inbound calls to your customer services team and increase the confidence the customer has in your delivery service.