Final-mile delivery is the last stage of the customer journey that started with them first visiting your website and purchasing your products. While it may well be the end of this process, it is quite possibly the most important, and could be the difference between a positive or negative review and repeat business.
From your perspective, the most important part of getting your product to your customer will be making sure it’s picked and packed properly and sent out on time. It’s then in the hands of a delivery partner.
From your customers’ perspective, the final-mile moment is the most important, it's the bit they understand best. It’s when the customer finally gets their hands on their order and experiences your brand's service first-hand.
A smooth, timely, and hassle-free delivery can lead to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and positive reviews. In contrast, and not surprisingly, a poor delivery experience can result in customer frustration, negative reviews, and lost sales.
However, final-mile delivery, and making sure it is optimised properly, can provide solutions to a number of customer priorities.
- Local knowledge: The delivery, at any stage, should be simple for your customers and not require any special effort, but when it comes to the final mile there will be local customs and preferences that only a local carrier will be able to provide. For example home delivery is popular in many countries but in others collecting from a counter or locker is preferred. Making sure your final-mile delivery is optimised for local preference adds a personal touch that won’t be forgotten.
- Familiarity: Most final-mile, professional carriers have drivers working in their own designated areas and so if they deliver to an address regularly they can develop a nice rapport with the customer. They will know the preferred safe-place of a household or which neighbour is most likely to be home and happy to accept delivery. This all helps add an extra point to your brand’s satisfaction score.
- Tracking: Being able to track an order, is a high must-have for modern customers, and in today’s tech-focused world, there’s very little reason why you shouldn’t be able to offer this to your customers and choosing the right final-mile carrier will often give you this feature as standard.
- Security: Of course, if deliveries go missing your customers will have options but this creates unnecessary effort on their part and will delay getting that order in their hands and the sale complete. Customers want confidence that their goods are safe and secure with security guaranteed. A good final-mile carrier will take care of your customers’ orders as much as you and will offer insurance to cover any potential mishaps.
- Speed: All customers want their orders delivered as quickly as possible, but often will be happy to wait a little longer if the cost is much lower. Final-mile delivery providers can help with this by providing a range of delivery options with varying delivery times and rates.
While these elements give valuable customer satisfaction reasons for final-mile optimisation, there are other factors which can also help support the profit margin and growth of your business too.
- Cost-effectiveness: Optimizing final-mile delivery helps reduce transportation and logistics expenses with efficient delivery routes, local vehicles, and fewer failed delivery attempts.
- Competitive advantage: Offering faster, more reliable, and convenient delivery options, helps you to separate yourself from their competitors and win over customers.
- Sustainability: Optimizing final-mile delivery helps e-commerce businesses reduce their carbon footprint, if your local carrier uses eco-friendly delivery vehicles, optimises routes to reduce fuel consumption, and helps support reducing packaging waste.
- Business growth: By increasing your delivery capacity, expanding your customer base, and opening up new markets the potential for business growth is exponential. This can be achieved by partnering with international delivery experts like Asendia, investing in technology and infrastructure, and implementing innovative delivery solutions such as same-day or next-day delivery with local picking and packing.
So how can Asendia optimise your final-mile delivery?
Optimizing final-mile delivery is crucial for enhancing customer satisfaction, reducing costs, gaining a competitive advantage, contributing to sustainability efforts, and driving business growth.
By focusing on this critical stage of the delivery process, e-commerce businesses can create a positive customer experience, increase profitability, and build a loyal customer base.
Consolidation and exportation
Asendia collects mail and parcels, consolidates them, processes them, manages customs clearance, and then hands them over to carefully chosen final-mile delivery partners in each country, with their technology enabling you to access each service and track shipments.
Final mile partners include local postal and courier companies in over 200 destinations
The chosen final-mile partners used by Asendia are a mix of national postal operators, alternative delivery providers and commercial parcel companies. Each one is chosen because they offer the best balance of price, reliability, and features, and have proven track-record of making sure your orders are cared for as if they were their own.
To speak to Asendia about optimising your international parcel delivery, get in touch.
