Customers may demand products how and when they want them, but many ecommerce retailers are struggling to meet their ever-increasing demands.
Some emerging platforms are gaining steam that help merchants offer same-day delivery, while others are giving retailers the ability to pull from their stores and deliver to a local audience. Here are four of those solutions.
As a group, consumers are getting more impatient, according to Pete Wharton, IBM Commerce Product Marketing Manager, whose company, along with its partnership with Deliv, helps retailers solve delivery concerns. The partnership is a match made in delivery heaven because IBM has the inventory accuracy and the intelligence behind the fulfillment decision-making process, while Deliv is the driving force (quite literally) behind package delivery. Deliv has a network of drivers that are near one of a retailer's stores (and doesn't need to be used in conjunction with IBM but the partnership does make fulfillment "smarter'). These drivers are connected through Deliv, and are rigorously screened to ensure each delivery is made safely. What's more, the entire process is insured. This all means that every retailer with a brick-and-mortar location can offer same-day delivery for the cost of standard 3-5-day shipping.
Deliv is almost like the Uber for retail deliveries (see in the image below how a driver gets a notification for a delivery request).
A service of Uber, UberRush is a reliable "ride for your deliveries" and is currently only available in New York City. UberRush certainly has the potential to not only expand to other cities, but also have ecommerce value. Currently UberRush is only meant for courier-type services (e.g. a document or package has to get from a business to a CEO who is working remotely at home), but with Uber's disruptive technology behind it, perhaps the company will dabble in ecommerce as well.
Just this week, Google announced that its Google Shopping Express service is expanding into three new cities: Chicago, Boston and Washington D.C. (it's already in New York and San Francisco). The idea behind Google Express (its current name), is to make shopping at local stores as easy as shopping online (but get the products in the same day). Google has now also added more merchants: 16 in total over the last couple of months. Google has added national brands including 1-800-Flowers, Barnes & Noble, Nine West, PetSmart, Vitamin Shoppe and Sports Authority, and regional merchants such as Paragon Sports in New York and Vicente Foods in Los Angeles. Google Express really has the potential to shake up retail delivery. After all, it is Google.
Acquired by eBay in 2013, Shutl partners with retailers in the U.S. and UK to speed up delivery. Shutl delivers online orders within 90 minutes, or within a one-hour timeframe of a consumer's choosing. Like Internet retail, Shutl operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The service can be offered to shoppers for a comparable price to standard delivery, or sometimes even free. How it does so, is Shutl works with thousands of local same-day couriers.