Before the package makes its last mile
For the customer, our service is simple: we pick up the package or grocery purchase at the warehouse, load it into the car and drive it to the customer. But before the deliveries hit the road, there are plenty of pitfalls, especially data ones. Join us to see what all needs to happen before we can deliver your parcels to the end customer, and how working with your teams and advanced technology helps us deliver seamlessly.
Designing last mile logistics solutions
Like every journey, ours begins over a map. Once we’ve clarified your idea of the shape and options of the service itself, we’ll start working on designing the right last mile logistics solutions for your e-commerce store. Using advanced technologies, we model simulated delivery scenarios in given cities. The location of pick-up points (your warehouses, darkstores, and stores) and the delivery area play a primary role. Here, we plan the expected routes in predicted delivery windows in parallel with the division into individual city districts, called zones. This will ensure that we serve the maximum number of your customers while maximizing the utilization of cars and couriers. This saves costs and the environment.
You can see how last mile logistics setup works in practice in Billa’s case study.
Demand forecasting and capacity allocation
Once we know where we’re going to deliver, the next technology comes in – the order predictor. We assign optimal courier and truck capacities to forecast end-customer demand to make sure there are no delays even at peak times. Then you will be able to offer your customers time slots for delivery. These start at just 30 minutes.
Order and data transfer
Orders are piling up, delivery requirements are set, and we can start preparing specific deliveries. Thanks to the integration with your e-shop, we get the data in real time and process it for our needs.
The key for us is the identification of the order (address or GPS) and the selected delivery slot. Thanks to them, we can assign the customer to a location and time and thus optimize delivery routes. Furthermore, we definitely need the name and contact details of your customer so that we can get in touch with them.
However, we can work with more information when calculating deliveries. For example, we can take into account how heavy or large the order is, which indicates how long it will take to unload at the customer’s location. Similarly, we can work with the information that your customer lives on the 5th floor without an elevator. When gathering information, it’s all up to you and your e-commerce store’s AI. For us, the more data we have, the better we can serve your customers, but we won’t force you to collect data that doesn’t make sense to you.
What we would definitely welcome, however, is the integration of extra data that, while it doesn’t affect route planning, is important to the courier. For example, the delivery of goods for people over 18 years of age or labelling of fragile items.
Sending the request to the warehouse
Once we have the routes planned, it’s a time to forward the request to the warehouse for pick-up with information on the desired pick-up time. At the scheduled time, our couriers are at your location, pick up the order and head out to the customer. The moment we accept the order or package, we send a text message to the end customer with a link to track the courier on a map. This gives your customer a clear view of whether they can expect the parcel at the beginning or end of their time slot, which is a very popular feature.
The final step is then handing over the order to the customer. As standard, we deliver to the customer’s doorstep, and for appliances, we also offer basic installation or removal of old appliances. You can rely on professional and trained couriers. They are, of course, food certified and equipped with payment terminals for convenient cash on delivery. All shipments are also insured. With all these services, we contribute to a better customer experience for your e-shop. The long-term delivery of 92% of all orders in the chosen slot supports this.
As you can see, it takes close cooperation between both companies to successfully deliver an order. However, based on feedback from our clients and end customers, we know that all the work we put into preparing logistics processes and data integration will quickly pay off in the number of orders, customer retention, and increased customer satisfaction with their purchase on your e-shop.
Do you, too, want more satisfied customers and hassle-free last-mile logistics? Get in touch, we’d be happy to discuss the possibilities with you.
