Next day delivery was once seen as an expensive optional extra, but not so much anymore with many customers choosing this efficient and cost-effective option. Customers’ demands have changed since the pandemic, particularly with regards to e-commerce. Jon White, Chief Commercial Officer EMEA of InXpress, explores these changes and how companies can keep up with demands.
Next day delivery is no longer a nice to have, it’s now the new norm. The volume of parcels in the UK has increased over 50% from pre-pandemic levels with e-commerce on the rise. These recent shifts in habits are causing challenges for businesses to keep up with the growing demand, with online retailers sending out packages at unimaginable speed. E-commerce and delivery-based businesses have been adjusting to this transition of expectations and finding new ways to keep up with their competitors, all while focusing on keeping their customers happy and satisfied.
With people opting to order goods online more than ever before, shipping and delivery demands have changed to adapt to new consumer behaviours. Business leaders are turning to various technology and automation methods, along with enhanced customer services to help smooth out these growing pains.
The lasting effects of the pandemic
COVID-19 has left an impact on the shipping and delivery industry that business leaders are still trying to grapple with. The pandemic has caused disruptions in the supply chain because of the unprecedented situation, leaving companies unable to fulfil their orders on time and exposing supply chain vulnerabilities that may not have been noticeable before.
Customer habits changed during the pandemic, resulting in more people ordering online. With mandated lockdowns and people switching to remote working, physical contact was minimised, and focus was placed on deliveries to meet all customer needs.
This introduced new challenges for business leaders who now had a fast acceleration of orders to execute, but with a shortage of workers. They were forced to reimagine and manage their demand, with the supply chain becoming a key focus for the C-suite across businesses during COVID. The strategy was switched to innovation and technologies that could address the issues caused by the pandemic.
Inevitably, following COVID-19, physical stores shifted to online marketplaces. E-commerce was booming and traditional shipping methods no longer fulfilled the same amount of demand.
Next day delivery expectations
Amazon Prime set a precedent for customers to expect their parcels at shockingly fast rates. With their one-of-a-kind membership, customers could expect to see their deliveries within the next day or in some cases, on the same day.
It has now become commonplace with next day delivery options becoming an expectation rather than a rare luxury. Shipping companies now more frequently offer quicker delivery time, resulting in customer expectations growing and shaping their habits.
However, it is no surprise that next day delivery results in high satisfaction rates. A survey conducted in 2024 reported that 80% of customers reported higher satisfaction levels when they had same day or next day delivery options.
This has been a challenge for business leaders. It is certainly not cheap to implement next day delivery with high operational fees and in order to combat this, leaders are having to increase the prices of their products.
However, this has proved to be worth it due to the popularity around next day delivery. Customers do not mind paying a little extra if it also provides convenience and peace of mind, knowing their parcels are on the way.
Technology first to provide enhanced customer services
At the forefront of every e-commerce organisation, customer service is vital in order to achieve success and ensure that people continue to use their services. With next day delivery becoming a norm in the shipping industry, technology has rapidly advanced to provide faster, seamless delivery services.
There are many new methods such as drone delivery, local drop points and real-time tracking, so that it’s no longer impossible to envision exactly where your parcel is at any given time and when to expect it.
These technological advancements are fuelled by customer expectations and the boom of e-commerce. This type of demand means that organisations have to be prepared to become rapid and efficient to provide customer service.
Technology has the ability to completely transform delivery services, improving last-mile delivery processes and reducing costs from manual labour which was essential following the pandemic. In order to satisfy customer needs, these technological developments has provided a plethora of new delivery options for people to choose from. There is an option for everyone, no matter what their circumstances are.
With local drop points, it is an option for customers to pick up their packages from other areas such as kiosks at retail shops that provides safety for packages that people may want other people residing in the same house not seeing and versatility to pick up before or after work hours.
With real-time tracking, customers no longer have to adhere to long waiting times and unknown delivery times. With a click of their finger, they can follow along every step of their parcel online and get live updates. It provides them with the flexibility to plan their day around their delivery, instead of having to wait for it at any given moment.
For example, UK Hampshire-based business, Chalk Stream Foods, grows and supplies trout to a range of catering industries such as cruise liners, farm shops and delis. However, due to the pandemic, they were forced to move their business online and struggled to find new ways to deliver their fresh produce.
InXpress was able to help Chalk Stream Foods overcome their challenges and they have now been able to successfully deliver over 55,000 parcels with InXpress’ help, supporting them with tracking every parcel they had to fulfil and talking to customers.
Technology has improved efficiency with delivery by automating tasks, integrating GPS systems for tracking deliveries and optimising processes, leaving customers much more satisfied.
The shipping and delivery industry is constantly evolving and with the right innovation, it can harness powerful technology and address the pain points that customers and users are experiencing amid the e-commerce boom.
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