Delivery service that once had a narrowed demand from a limited set of customers has now outgrown to become a day-to-day requirement of everyone’s lives. If you track back to the last decade, once in a while a customer used to use a courier or any kind of delivery service, as most of his purchases were from local markets only. Then, delivery or courier businesses mainly survived on the larger scale commercial supply chains only. But the current market scenario has changed with the boom of eCommerce.
Ecommerce Delivery and logistics- booming like never before
People browse over the Internet, shop, and want things to get delivered to the doorstep. From food to clothing, daily groceries to high-end products, home furnishing to homeschooling material, electronics to lifestyle items, for everything, shoppers are no longer confined to local shopping. Using eCommerce platforms, social media leads, people are reaching out to sellers beyond geographical limitations. While this has provided the retail businesses a whole new opportunity to shoot up their sales and clients, it is also true that new-age e-commerce-led businesses need a proper delivery system in place to function efficiently. Because customer’s expectations from retailers have changed.
There was a time when customers were ready to stand in a queue to make a purchase, but now they no more show that degree of patience. They do not just want products to be delivered at the doorstep, but also look for an experience like one-day delivery, transparent communication regarding shipments, real-time tracking of shipments, etc. So, a properly streamlined delivery system has become integral for the smooth functioning of any retail business that abides by the e-Commerce model. Even if a business doesn’t build its own delivery setup, it collaborates with delivery service providers to run its deliveries. The bottom line is that the demand for delivery services is on the hike, and it is needed to be managed and run with improved efficiency.
How a Delivery management software helps in improving the delivery operations?
Delivery management software, which is a kind of field service management system for regulating eCommerce or other commercial deliveries, is the right tool that offers end-to-end solutions to manage the operational complexities of a delivery business. Such software suites or apps streamline the field operations of e-commerce delivery and logistic business. The software is efficient in tech-enabling operations like:
- Managing leads and services requests
- Tracking communication leads with the leads, prospects, and customers.
- Managing quotes and queries with prospective customers.
- tracking delivery staff and shipment, and Sending updates to the customers
- Monitoring and controlling the inventory in the warehouse
- Location tracking and monitoring fleet drivers on a real-time basis.
- Smart analytics for analyzing and generating reports through metrics
- Collect proof of delivery
- Route Management to provide the optimum route for the fastest delivery
The easy way to select the appropriate Delivery management software
There are different types of delivery management software suites available in the market. So while selecting a delivery management system for your business, how to ensure the credibility and usability of the software?
One of the easiest ways of doing this is to assess the applicability of the software for its users, that is to check out who all will be able to use the software. Your operational team comprises members with different job roles, so you must pick up a delivery management system that is useful for different job roles. The software should be efficient to assist the job responsibilities of all the stakeholders like Sales Executives, Delivery Service Manager, Warehouse Manager, Supervisor, Fleet Manager, Delivery Staff, Accountant, and even Customers. This ensures that a single software is being used to manage the different processes of your business, which means centralized data management. This also ensures that you have invested in feature-heavy software.
When you look for delivery management system software, you will easily find a range of delivery scheduling software for small businesses. While automated delivery scheduling is one of the much-needed tech enablements for any delivery or logistic business, it is not the only kind of automation necessary. There is no point in purchasing software exclusively for delivery schedules, rather you must look for comprehensive delivery management software that can perform added functionalities over and beyond job scheduling.
Conclusion
A delivery management software must facilitate not just one or two, but a range of field operations. It must automate the operations, make them more trackable and measurable, and should help the users to become more efficient in their job roles. Besides, it is also important to realize that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ kind of software when it comes to meeting the business’s specifications. so, always talk to your IT service provider regarding the customization feasibility in the software.
