Definition of Same Day Delivery
Same-day delivery means that inventory is delivered on the same day that it was ordered. Ordered today, delivered tomorrow is already a standard for some e-commerce shippers. The next step is same-day delivery.
Same-day delivery requirements for intralogistics
Same-day delivery places high demands on intralogistics. These include:
- Effective warehouse management
- A high degree of automation
- Flexible response capabilities
Delivering on the same day as the order is placed is not easily achievable. A faster service results in a sharp increase in costs. Whether the costs are borne by the provider or passed on to the customer in the form of higher prices is up to the provider to calculate. Some companies offer a slightly less demanding 24-hour service. This means that the customer does not receive their order on the same day, but within 24 hours.
In order to fulfill all contractual agreements with the customer in the same-day delivery, cooperation with fulfillment partners is possible. The support of fulfillment partners must work smoothly. In e-commerce, systems must be integrated to be able to react flexibly. For this purpose, product information such as ID, name, price, weight, photo and size are integrated into a data record. In dynamic e-commerce, logistics must be flexible, fast and cost-effective.
Experts see great business potential in fast deliveries, which, according to various sources, means that same-day delivery is a potential billion-dollar business. On the other hand, the volume of traffic on highways and in cities must not be ignored, because such response times can usually only be achieved today by using small vans, which will result in a greatly increased traffic and environmental impact.
The road to multichannel retailing
Same-day delivery is difficult to achieve when the ordered inventory must first travel hundreds of kilometers on the highway. Large shippers therefore sometimes rely on several distribution centers throughout the country in order to be as close to the customer as possible. Another modern approach is to integrate local retailers into the e-commerce order fulfillment process. This allows affiliated retailers to secure orders from the Internet and sell the inventory to the customer themselves. The advantage: orders can be offered first to regional retailers, so that the transport distance is only a few kilometers at best. For example, same-day delivery can now be realized using bicycle couriers, which also helps the environment.
For more information on multichannel retailing, see Multichannel retailing – opportunities and risks.
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