Overcoming the Top 3 Challenges in Final Mile Shipping

E-commerce is one of the fastest-growing sectors worldwide, with more people than ever choosing to make purchases online. This growth is particularly apparent in Canada, which has seen 10 percent year-on-year growth over the last few years. If this growth rate continues, the Canadian e-commerce market should reach a value of $104 billion by 2025.

Retailers and distributors have struggled with the logistics of an effective final-mile delivery as consumers increasingly rely on e-commerce for all their shopping needs. Satisfying customer expectations, ineffective order fulfilment and obstacles beyond our control are the main challenges affecting final-mile delivery.

Challenge #1: Customer Expectations

To increase brand loyalty and consumer satisfaction, final mile delivery should prioritize speed, timely delivery, and accuracy. About 28 percent of buyers base their rankings of the top online merchants on how quickly a product is delivered. In addition, 25 percent of customers will abandon the shopping cart or cancel their orders if they find out that the retailer does not provide next-day delivery services. Despite the increased volumes of e-commerce sales, customers continue to expect retailers to offer speedier delivery while charging little to no delivery fees. In fact, up to 72 percent of customers are willing to use the service as long as it is free.

Customer satisfaction is also greatly influenced by real-time tracking. 90 percent of consumers want the option to monitor their orders, and 41 percent of them want to know the whereabouts of their items in real time. When it comes to communication, 80 percent of people want to get updates on delivery status; 39 percent think once-daily updates are appropriate, and 27 percent want updates as frequently as they can, up to and including multiple times per day.

How ASL Can Help: 

Our decades of experience have positioned us to support some of the

world’s largest retailers with versatile final mile services. We lay a foundation of process, discipline and infrastructure for our deliveries, so rather than flowing thousands of orders on conveyer belts, we split volumes by region and then sort each order by delivery location before loading it onto local delivery trucks. This allows us to ensure that each order has the right boxes loaded on the right trucks for more accurate and timely deliveries.

Unlike our competitors, we do not charge any residential or peak surcharges so that we can keep delivery fees low for your customers. We also offer seven days a week delivery to most destinations, including evenings – at no extra charge, to provide speedier delivery while charging little to no fees to your customers.

To maintain customer satisfaction, our drivers average over 99.5% on-time delivery with real-time tracking with ShipTrack. Customer care often spends too much time having to trace orders, but our advanced technology allows ASL to easily manage and track pick-up and delivery operations, from order management, dispatch, route optimization and proof of delivery. With GPS tracking and live metric reporting, customers can log onto a web-based portal that will provide them with real time updates or we can integrate with your own website on their delivery status as frequently as they want, allowing customer care to focus on more important tasks.

Challenge #2: Inefficiency in Order Fulfilment 

Order fulfilment inefficiency can waste time, increase operating costs, and cut into a company’s profit margins. To increase fulfilment capacities, warehouse management is essential. Poor management, especially when dealing with high order numbers, can increase delivery delays and aggravate customers.

About half of all international logistics and transportation companies still rely on outdated technologies for final-mile delivery. This technology provides little to no assistance in overcoming shipping costs and delays. Ensuring technology is constantly updated and having an integrated mobility and IoT management platform in place, is an effective operations strategy to help minimize disruptions to businesses while maintaining a prominent level of customer satisfaction.

How ASL Can Help: 

ASL Distribution has the knowledge and tools you need to make order processing and fulfilment worry-free. We can develop a customized workflow that delivers your brand into the hands of your customers, your way. From receiving, picking, packing, shipping — and even home delivery — we deliver on each step of the process to your exact specifications.

Our order fulfilment system can integrate with your existing website, making the process an entirely your-brand experience. Full EDI capability assures data integrity and maximizes the velocity of the order cycle. Web-based access to your information and automated reports combine to give you the information you need to run your business and optimize your supply chain.

Challenge #3: Challenges Beyond Your Control

Events that are unpredictable and beyond our control can also interfere with final-mile delivery. This includes:

• Rising Cost of Transportation
• Traffic
• Parking Restrictions
• Severe Weather
• Customer is Not Home
• Vehicle Issues

How ASL Can Help:

ASL has made the commitment to ensure that our customers receive the best experience by providing innovation in our supply chain and opening up more capacity through assets and space to keep the flow of goods moving. Some of these innovations focus on expanding and renovating terminals to help alleviate issues across the country, providing more visibility into shipments through technology and tools to help route optimization, and investing in our people and workforce to help provide solutions that will help keep our customers’ businesses running. These investments will allow us to service you better during those unpredictable events.

What Does Final Mile Success Look Like? 

When you partner with ASL, you receive the personalized attention that your company and its brand deserve. Each of our team members is dedicated to developing and implementing custom logistics solutions that overcome these final mile delivery challenges and meet your exact needs, while exceeding the expectations of your customers.

To partner with ASL Distribution for final mile delivery, contact us below!