Apr. 5, 2013 - NEWTON, Mass. -- Why did we write this report? “There is a lot of buzz in the press right now about Amazon and eBay home delivery and the competition is heating up between retailers. But none of these articles actually talked about best practices. We felt that there was a lack of analysis on the basics as well as what it really takes to succeed” says Ann Grackin CEO of ChainLink Research.
“Successful home delivery is about profitable cho ice. It’s the difference between the retailer making or losing money in home delivery and offering differentiated versus mediocre customer service,” said Chris Jones EVP Marketing and Services for Descartes. “ChainLink Research provides valuable insight into the strategies, processes, and technology needed to achieve profitable choice.”
Key conclusions from this report showed:
• Incentivized delivery techniques need to be analyzed before offering home delivery services, as well as ongoing monitoring to assure margin protection. The research found that some companies who do this well can actually make a profit while providing a range of ‘deals’ for the consumer.
• Many consumers don’t want same day delivery per se. They want it ‘when they want it.’ So service providers and re tailers need to offer a variety of options and then have the ability to actually meet their commitments. The real satisfier to the consumer is keeping your appointment once it is made, as well as having the right staff and equipment to fulfill the in-home services if required.
• Logistics technologies and methods for consumers—B2C—are highly differentiated from B2B distribution techniques. So 3PLs, service providers, and retailers need to look carefully at the features, methods, costs, and options available to serve consumers.
• The technology for home delivery spans across ecommerce, transportation route optimization, to mobile computing. Successful models include persistent and regular communications with the consumer such as automated delivery confirmation and mobile communications not only between the driver a nd the dispatcher, but between the driver and consumer. Closing the loop with post delivery survey and performance monitoring assures a continuous improvement process as well as rapid recovery if the customer experience was less than stellar.
The research includes some great company examples across 3PLs, service providers, and retailers, such as John Lewis in the UK, Tesco’s Home Plus in Korea, Ooshop (the online shopping service of Carrefour), Home Depot in the US, and Radishbo-ya in Japan.
“The US market is quite different from the EU and Asia, but globally we can all learn from each other as new retail formats across the retail segments experiment with methods and see how consumers embrace these services, “says Grackin.
You can download this research report, Winning at Home Delivery, on the ChainLink Research site.
For more information, or if you wish to discuss this research, you can contact ChainLink Research at; info@clresearch.com.
About ChainLink Research
ChainLink Research, Inc. is a Supply Chain research organization dedicated to helping executives improve business performance and competitiveness through an understanding of real-world implications, obstacles and results for supply-chain policies, practices, processes, and technologies. The ChainLink 3Pe Model is the basis for our research. It is a unique, multidimensional framework for managing and improving the links between supply chain partners. www.clresearch.com
About Descartes
Descartes (TSX:DSG) (Nasdaq:DSGX) is the global leader in providing on-demand, software-as-a-service solutions focused on improving the productivity, performance and security of logistics-intensive businesses. Descartes has over 146,000 parties using its cloud based services. Customers use our modular, software-as-a-service solutions to route, schedule, track and measure delivery resources; plan, allocate and execute shipments; rate, audit and pay transportation invoices; file customs and security documents for imports and exports; and complete numerous other logistics processes by participating in the world\'s largest, collaborative multi-modal logistics community. Our headquarters are in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada and we have offices and partners around the world. Learn more at www.descartes.com.
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Source: www.abnewswire.com
