A lot of modern developments in technology have made it a lot easier to shop for things wherever we are in the world over the last decade. Now you can order pretty much everything from your phone and pay for it within seconds.
As buying things becomes easier, customers are also demanding the way they get their products gets easier as well. Here are some of the ways technology is helping online shopping make it to the physical doorstep.
Keeping the contents protected
You might think that the cardboard box or the packaging your products come in is probably the most low-tech part of the whole process. As it no longer serves a purpose pretty much a second after you receive the parcel and you’ve opened it, you might think that it serves very little purpose whatsoever. What you have to keep in mind though is you’re only seeing the very last stage of that packaging’s life. You don’t see the many different vehicles and sorting offices which that parcel has been in to get to your front door. You don’t even see the many trips those parcels have had in the outside world, in the cold, in the rain, and in the snow, that they’ve had to take to get to your front door.
If the online companies don’t get the packaging right, you could simply end up needing to find a way of disposing of the whole product rather than the packaging. That’s because if the contents of the parcel are damaged during transit, the customer is well within their rights to demand that the company send them a brand-new product at no extra cost. That’s why it’s so important for companies to invest in packaging. If they don’t, they could end up paying out a lot more in replacement products and also see their brand’s reputation damaged as well.
As well as a traditional cardboard box, it’s important that companies look at extra protection that they can use for their products. One of the most effective materials to make these products out of are polymers. Many companies are now working directly with a polymer company to come up with bespoke solutions for whatever they need to package. For example, as the rise in the popularity of recipe boxes continues, companies need creative solutions to keep these food products fresh. Traditionally if you were going to buy the same products from a store, you’d probably rush to put them in the fridge and the freezer as quickly as you can. Unfortunately, if these parcels have to travel across the country, these companies simply don’t have the same luxury. Luckily devices like airtight packaging and even cooling bags made out of polymers help resolve many of these problems.
Tracking the parcel
Another one of the big challenges when it comes to delivering a parcel is having someone there to meet it when it reaches its destination. Whilst many parcels can be left in a “safe space” if agreed by the customer, there are some products that are either too large, too sensitive, or even too expensive to simply be left outside a home. The only problem is that many of the working hours of delivery drivers also coincide with many of the working hours of the people who need to sign and take in these parcels. That means that many people could be out of their homes at the exact time that someone attempts to make this delivery.
As delivering these items can cost a lot of money, it’s important to try and get as many of these items delivered during the first attempt. If the delivery driver has spent a long period of time carefully loading a large or delicate product into a delivery van and driven miles to the door just to find nobody is there, that is a lot of wasted time or money. Although most customers are happy to take time out of their busy schedule to make sure they’re at home when these deliveries arrive, they also want to know a precise expected delivery time as possible.
For example, if you tell them it’s going to be delivered between 8 am and 8 pm on a certain day, that’s up to 12 hours of their day that they might be forced to waste waiting in for a parcel. If a company invests in a tracking device or an app that can tell the customer exactly how far away the van is from their home in real-time, they can have a better idea of exactly when they need to be in the home. This means they know that they’re free to pop and run a quick errand and still be back for the parcel to be delivered. As well as reducing the chance of a failed delivery, this system could make the customer more likely to buy from a company in the future.
Recording evidence of exactly where it was left
One of the biggest problems of delivering a parcel when nobody is home is proving that the delivery driver did in fact deliver the product. If a product is stolen from a porch or safe place, and a customer has specifically said they’d take responsibility for any loss of products that were left in their nominated “safe space,” it’s important that you can prove that it was delivered to the right place. This evidence is also important in case a customer attempts to deny they ever received a product as a way of fraudulently trying to request a refund even if they do receive their product.
One of the best ways to prove it was delivered is to simply get the delivery driver to take a photo of where they left it. Many delivery companies are now sending their drivers out with devices that can not only take a photo of the parcel but can also record the exact coordinates of where it was delivered. This way, the driver can prove exactly where they delivered it.
