By Jax Zheng, Director of Partnerships at UniUni, a leading last-mile delivery company.
The holiday season can make or break a small or medium-sized e-commerce business. It brings more shoppers, more orders and higher stakes, especially when it comes to shipping. When time-sensitive purchases are on the line, shoppers expect reliable delivery, timely updates and quick resolution when something goes wrong. There’s little room for error.
While larger brands can absorb peak-season complexities with dedicated logistics teams, extensive infrastructure and carrier networks, SMBs simply can’t. Fortunately, they don’t have to rely on the biggest shipping networks to give customers the fast, reliable delivery experience they expect. With the right partners, they can access many of the same capabilities without building everything themselves.
Here’s what to know:
Prioritize Flexibility for When Demand Grows
Peak season is inherently unpredictable, but a last-mile strategy doesn’t have to be. With order volumes shifting based on seasonal promotions, weather, product demand, and shopping trends, smaller retail and e-commerce brands need to build flexibility into their delivery strategy from the start.
SMBs can also find that large, standardized carrier networks aren’t always designed around the flexibility they need. Instead, they should look to delivery partners with flexible networks that can scale up and down with demand, adapt as conditions change, and maintain consistent service without requiring constant intervention.
When building a strategy, and vetting the last-mile delivery partners that will support it, retailers should ask:
- Can we easily increase/decrease capacity when order volume fluctuates?
- Can we ensure delivery performance remains consistent across markets?
- Do we have clear visibility without manually managing every shipment?
The goal is a flexible network that delivers the speed, visibility, and reliability shoppers expect.
Use Technology to Level the Playing Field
Smaller brands don’t have to build this flexibility themselves. For years, SMBs often had to work within the same large-scale delivery networks as everyone else, with fewer options to customize the experience around their needs. Today, tech-enabled delivery partners are giving smaller retailers access to the capabilities, flexibility and visibility that were once reserved for larger retailers.
With the right partners, SMBs can tap into networks that provide them with:
- Real-time order tracking and updates from warehouse to doorstep
- Technology that reduces manual order coordination and customer communication
- Scalable carrier networks that flex across markets to meet demand
Such partners give SMBs a way to meet customer expectations without the investment and infrastructure required for large in-house logistics operations. Instead, they’re gaining access to the delivery capabilities customers expect, in a model that fits a small e-commerce business.
Start Holiday Peak Planning Now
For small e-commerce teams, waiting until orders start picking up to address delivery challenges leaves little room to make changes. Now is the time to confirm carrier capacity, establish contingency plans, test processes and make sure customers will have the visibility they expect throughout the holiday season.
Planning ahead can help SMBs answer a few important questions:
- Are our delivery partners set up to support a business our size, or are we paying for capabilities we don’t really need
- Do we have enough delivery capacity to handle peak demand?
- Do we have the right carrier mix to maintain reliable service as volumes increase?
- Can customers easily track their orders and get timely updates?
- What happens if a shipment is delayed, lost or otherwise goes off track?
- Which delivery tasks can we automate or outsource so our team isn’t overwhelmed?
The goal is to shine light on potential pressure points now, while there’s time to address them. A few changes made in the months before Black Friday/Cyber Monday can help prevent delivery issues from becoming customer-facing problems when order volumes are at their highest.
Deliver Like a Large Retailer Without Being One
SMBs don’t necessarily need the biggest delivery network; they do need one that gives them the right mix of cost, coverage and flexibility. Fortunately, when it comes to ensuring positive delivery experiences to their customers, they have options.
With early planning, the right technology and shipping partners in place, smaller e-commerce brands can unlock the capabilities of large-scale retailers to meet heightened customer expectations and deliver the shopper experiences that turn holiday purchases into a reason to buy again.
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