Delivery management is the process of transporting a product from one end to another ensuring no damage in the most effective and efficient manner. Often referred to as dispatch or fleet management, the question here comes is How do we get these items transferred from point A to point B? How to overcome the challenges coming on the way during delivery management for eCommerce?
The B2C businesses require a robust delivery system that can handle the order tracking from order pickup to order delivery to provide an excellent customer experience. This role has never been in greater demand as customer expectations continue to grow. Since eCommerce is expanding, the demand for home delivery has been increased, and having a yardstick delivery system is of foremost importance.
What is delivery management?
The delivery management starts after the customer places the order. Whether you are a small B2C business owner or a multi-national brand, delivery management isn’t that simple. The store owner has to take care of the logistics, the order status, delivery boy, vehicle driver, shipping charges for cost efficiency, and last but not least the product condition at the time it reaches the customer’s door.
You can always hire a delivery manager. A delivery, logistics, or dispatch manager is commonly referred to as the person in charge of deliveries. The delivery in charge is also tasked with local delivery and driver operations control. They are also the middle point of communication between warehouses and those making deliveries in smaller businesses. Delivery managers prefer to concentrate on trouble spots, such as overdue orders, in more robust operations where orders are processed programmatically.
There are various software and modules available for delivery management that can help you with the seamless handling of the entire home delivery process. And if you have a PrestaShop or OpenCart store then you are fortunate enough because KnowBand has launched the Delivery Boy app for both the platforms. This will surely lend a helping hand to your home delivery business to successfully manage it.
KnowBand Delivery Boy Mobile App
The eCommerce store owners often struggle with late deliveries or hassled management. The customer who places an order needs the delivery as soon as possible. It is the prime duty of the eCommerce store admin to ensure that the product delivery should be quicker and handy.
We offer a handy delivery boy mobile app and admin panel to simplify both management and user-end delivery. Check them out:
PrestaShop Delivery Boy Mobile App
OpenCart Delivery Boy Mobile App
Make the delivery system more efficient using the delivery boy mobile app
Since we have discussed the challenges and tips to overcome them now it is time to see the solution that is instantly available for your store. The ready-made delivery boy app to manage the delivery system! This can be
1. Easy configuration and customization:
You can configure the Delivery Boy from the Module Admin panel. The app can be customized for the preferred theme and you can add a logo and your brand name.
2. Create a delivery boy profile:
The registration can be done by adding some personal details of the delivery boy like name, email, profile image, vehicle number, vehicle type, etc.
3. Notify with Automated emails:
Once the Delivery Boy account is set up by the administrator, the Delivery Boy App login credentials are sent via email. You can also enable or disable the Delivery Boy from the admin panel (through store admin).
4. Delivery boy can check orders
The delivery boy can check the orders in his vicinity. Which ones are closer, how many orders are placed, and how many are actually pending?
5. Accept or reject the orders
The delivery boy may accept the delivery order or if the location is not suitable or he is done with the day or in case of any emergency, he can also reject the same with reason.
6. Door Step Delivery:
With a no-touch delivery system, get your orders delivered locally, with easy navigation provided.
7. Push notification:
When the order is placed or is out for delivery, or about the expected date of delivery or when the order is finally delivered, a Push notification should hit the customer device.
and a lot more. Check this informative guide for further details.
Challenges in Delivery Management:
There are various issues faced by eCommerce owners or physical store owners when they provide on-demand home delivery to their customers. The most annoying thing is waiting without knowing the order status. Some of the challenges are discussed here:
- Incorrect tracking information- Problem finding specific addresses in deliveries. No way to keep track of agents/drivers.
- Delayed Delivery- Customers do not know the estimated arrival time.
- Handling delivery refusal by the customer-
- Lack of proper database of deliveries, agents, and customers
- Communication with drivers/agents is hard
You might need some software that can handle your deliveries in order to boost your delivery management system. But this program often costs you a lot of money. But in the market, pocket-friendly and better solutions are available. Let’s understand what the applications for distribution management should be able to do.
Tips to improve your delivery operations management
By completing more deliveries with fewer resources (man-hours, equipment, fuel), distribution operations are continuously trying to bring down costs while also ensuring a high level of customer service. Delivery managers frequently use a variety of instruments and techniques to optimize their metrics and scale up their activities.
1. Set your priorities:
A simple way to plan the day is by prioritizing the orders. You may classify those customers or stops that must be served based on the relevance of an order or the stated calendar date by doing this.
By specifying the priority of the order, you let the algorithm know what must be included in the optimization of the path. Or on the flip side, if you run into resource constraints, let orders get moved to another date.
2. Never give commitments that are hard to stick with
Today’s consumers expect accountability and are more concerned with businesses delivering than with pace throughout promised time-windows. If these consumer expectations cannot be met, organizations run the risk of harming their image.
False commitments will drive your customers away. You might have succeeded in achieving your target this time but if you fail to deliver the product on time then you will lose a potential lead and will impact the retention rate.
3. Pick up the orders faster
There are many things you can do to collect orders faster: plan your order list concerning the position of the goods in the warehouse, pick several orders at once (batch picking), consider how long it takes to pick products, consider the best way to handle various sizes of the products to be selected, and investigate whether people or robots are faster to pick them at the warehouse.
4. Incorporate order and vehicle tracking system
Tracking a vehicle with Google map integration is not rocket science anymore. Visibility to vehicle locations in real-time can help dispatchers understand when a driver may be off course, saving valuable resources and avoiding costly delays. Customer support teams also leverage vehicle tracking to tell customers when their delivery is likely to be completed.
Vehicle tracking will let you know if the driver is heading in the right direction on his or her way to their next delivery or not. You can even come to know about the traffic information with real-time tracking and geolocation intelligence.
5. Upgrade your delivery system with technology
Technology combined with AI improves human skills and reduces everyday work. In several different ways, AI can optimize the delivery management: customer service chat-bots, image recognition where AI extracts information from an image, identification of anomalies, quality assurance through image, video, and data tracking, delivery time prediction, fraud detection cameras, delivery robots, and more.
You can reduce the shipping cost with some pro tips discussed in my previous blog post:
6 Simple Ways to Reduce Shipping Cost
Conclusion:
So obviously, inside your online store, it’s always safer to have an integrated shipment tracking system for delivery management. The PrestaShop delivery boy app and OpenCart Delivery Boy App is an integrated eCommerce solution with complete tracking features, including the tracking dashboard given on the backend of the module. So you never need to step out of your PrestaShop store.
