Same-day delivery is really the talk of the e-retail world right now. You will not find any of the big name retailers conducting any business online without some form of the service. Whether it is Wal-Mart, eBay, Amazon, Target, and more, these companies are making huge investments into making the service thrive. However, even with all of the trending and uproar, some experts are wondering will it work this time?
MIT Technology Review wrote a report questioning whether same-day courier services will succeed and examined some of the retailers new services out there to see if it will make it. Google’s new same-day delivery service is called Google Shopping Express. With this service, you can really buy anything, from gum to a phone charger, and have it delivered to your front door for $5. Google and others usually launch same-day delivery in the San Francisco Bay Area because it has the right ingredients for the service. With all of the e-retail companies offering same-day delivery, the question is why are they pushing for this service now?
When the internet first began to grow, there were companies like WebVan and Kozmo.com, which put a lot of money into same-day delivery as well. These companies were hoping that online sales were going to grow rapidly and make the service sustainable, yet it did not. This could prove to be quite different right now since the consumer environment has changed. This is especially true because of increased usage of technology, such as smartphones, ipad, iphones, tablets, and more. This is not to mention the US population is becoming more centralized, meaning there is more time being spent at home.
Jeremy Levine, a venture capitalist at Bessemer Venture Partners, stated in the report, “Everything in retail revolves on price and availability. Price is price, and availability is a measure of how fast I get it after I click on my phone. A lot of the big guys are trying to crack that code.” Currently, online sales in the US are at $262 billion. The growth shows no signs of slowing down either. This is another reason retail giants are acting swiftly, seeking to be innovative and offer some form of same-day delivery.
Google's Shopping Express charges $5 for each store a customer order from and delivers within 2 hours. eBay has their same-day service with a $25 minimum purchase. It's service is currently available in New York, San Francisco and Chicago. EBay plans on expanding the service to 25 more US cities as well. Online leader Amazon offers Amazon Fresh, its' same-day grocery service in Seattle, and now in the Los Angeles area. This service is actually free for orders over $35. Regarding packages, Amazon created Amazon Lockers, which consist of a customer having their online orders shipped to their nearest locker location and picked up from there at their convenience.
The best option for online retailers to go with is to partner with a same-day courier like A-1 Express to perform the deliveries. A-1 Express has a national footprint and can prove to be exactly what online retailers are looking for to make same-day delivery work. The San Francisco Courier has the courier expertise to create an optimal delivery solution and can provide quick implementation as well. As e-commerce grows continues to grow in the coming years, we will see if same-day delivery will survives.
Reference: 11.14.13, MIT Technology Review, Rachel Metz, Can Same-Day Delivery Succeed This Time?