Great site, check. Great products check. Great turnaround time, check. Good tracking system, check. And yet, you seem to have challenges.

Running an e-commerce business is no piece of cake. You will still have last mile issues. That is the hard truth. Let’s look at the factors that influence last mile deliveries.

Infrastructure

In several places, there aren’t enough last Mile distribution centers. Only if the number of DCs increases in an area, Delivery improves to consumers.  Better infrastructure increases delivery speed and saves money. But it is always a problem if there aren’t enough DCs in a given area. Last mile delivery takes a hit.

Proximity

Last mile pick up facilities should be aplenty wherever a company’s customer base is clustered. For example, in the USA, the Northeast and Eastern seaboards have the highest concentration of home-delivery customers. So, obviously, these areas should have a lot of distribution centers. Other areas that are not clustered so much have bad delivery schedules.  If DCs aren’t chosen wisely, a company suffers with delivery during the last mile.

Time

Distribution centers are generally located in industrial areas, not residential areas. If the delivery is to a residential area, the time it takes to make these deliveries (it is called stem time). If deliveries take more than 45 minutes and if it happens very often, there is a need to have distribution centers closer to the delivery areas. Deliveries that take too long from the last haul place mean a loss of productivity.

Traffic

Traffic is not a major issue in rural places but a seemingly small distance of a few miles might take a long time in a city. So, in traffic prone areas, companies need to plan out DCs in areas that are close, time-wise, to delivery centers.

Consumer Expectations

Customer relationship is very crucial in last-mile deliveries part of the supply chain. The delivery guy is the only part of the supply chain where any kind of in person interaction happens. So, you need to make sure the person who delivers the product is professional enough. Unhappy consumers can do a whole lot of damage to your business. But you may just employ the services of a 3PL vendor to handle logistics. So, you will have no idea of the person who delivers the product. If the delivery person manages to piss off your customer, your reputation is at stake.