Eye Popping Statistics.

  • 88% of consumers are willing to pay for same-day or faster delivery
  • 28% of customers rate the speed of delivery as the top feature they are looking for in their delivery service.
  • Same-day delivery can help businesses gain a competitive edge over 85% of other industry players
  • 51% of retailers offer same-day delivery to date. By 2019, you could expect that number to rise to 65%

People love fast deliveries.

Thanks to the boom of e-commerce and more specifically Amazon, consumer’s expectations for delivery times have dramatically increased. There was a time when a 5-7-day shipping window was reasonable. Now, if you see your delivery is going to take a week, you are more than likely scrambling to find a customer service number so you can get some answers. For those of us who love buying things off the internet with options such as same-day, next-day, or two-day delivery, it will be hard to ever imagine it any other way. The experience has spoiled consumers, which means the leaders in e-commerce must maintain the course, and in Amazon’s case, push it out even further. With that being said, some major ripple effects come along with that path. Companies who are making these deliveries and the companies who are associated with the production of consumer-goods must adapt and create new business practices to meet that immense growing demand.

What does this mean for us?

Does this have an impact on Pulse and how we operate? Of course, and it is in our best interest to make sure we know exactly where the changes are taking place in the industry and, it’s important we learn how to grow with that demand. Currently, we do not deliver parcel shipments and we do not chase a lot of residential business either. From the outside looking in, one might think our operation may be immune to the dynamism of e-commerce but that would be naïve thinking. We service a lot of customers who play an integral part in the supply chains of consumer-good manufacturers. That indirect correlation means we feel a direct impact from the “need for speed” culture because our customers are getting pushed to maximize their operations as well. Maximizing their operations may simply mean building more plant locations around urban areas for quicker production-to-customer efficiency, or it may be an overhaul of their current supply chain. Either way, Pulse needs to be able to grow with those ever-changing needs.

How will we react?

Following transportation trends and keeping a steady eye on all the changes in supply chains around the world can better help guide us to more sound business solutions. If speed is where the industry is going, then it is our job to be ready. Like I mentioned in my last blog post, we are actively chasing the short-haul and middle-haul lanes, and those lanes play a huge role in the same-day delivery market. As manufacturers adjust so they can get their finished product to urban areas quicker, they will need flexible carriers to be ready to move those goods around town as needed. If we can build the right relationships and grow with the e-commerce boom, then I believe we are in a great position to scale with the ever-present same-day delivery trend.