Will Same-Day Delivery Work this Holiday Season?

When it is about getting a same-day delivery program to work during the holidays, it will take more than just a bunch of drivers getting packages and boxes to a shopper's front door. A retailer will have to have a number of pieces to the puzzle for same-day delivery to work this holiday season.

During this time of the year, the timeliness of your service is crucial, as online retail makes a big impression on shoppers when you can deliver quicker than the time frame that a retailer's same-day delivery is committed to be performed within. Some retailers have a same-day delivery with a guarantee of delivery by 6pm or 9pm. If a company can get their deliveries executed by the afternoon, shoppers will consider their same-day delivery experience to be more than they expected and help advertise their service. This may be advertising the old fashioned way, however, the results are what retailers are after. The holiday season is a time where retailers have to make it count for three months and gaining the upper hand with same-day delivery will allow them to capture more US markets.

Amazon is capturing more markets with free same-day delivery service in 16 US cities. Amazon is one big retailer that has poured multiple investments into implementing same-day delivery throughout the US. The retail leader launched free same-day delivery in 14 Los Angeles metropolitan cities earlier this year, and then, right before the holiday season began, expanded their free service to Chicago and Orlando. Amazon's simple $99 Prime membership programs include free same-day delivery for orders over $35.

BestBuy also began testing same-day delivery in San Francisco and surrounding areas prior to the holidays. The company has partnered with delivery provider Deliv to perform the actual deliveries. Deliv is a crowdsourcing model, which local drivers in close proximity can pick up and deliver online orders easily. This makes sense when the delivery aspect of same-day delivery is not your strong suit. It takes an effective logistical routing system and design to make the service work.

Kohl's is another retailers that add to its' same-day program in time for the holidays, expanding into San Francisco, the Bay Area and Chicago. Before Black Friday, its' same-day delivery program became available in Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, Brooklyn/Queens, Jersey, and Miami. This was an aggressive expansion plan for the service, showing that Kohl's is competing with Amazon, Macy's and others to win over those shoppers looking for a same-day delivery option.

With holiday shipping being a must for shoppers, having an alternative for them to get their online order fulfilled would be a versatile option for them. Store pick-up allows customers to either have their online order delivered same day, or they can have their item shipped to a local store for pick up. Another type of store pick-up option is to offer orders to be made online for direct store pick-up. You can simply go to the specific store you choose to pick it up from where it is available the same day.

It takes a lot of logistics for same-day delivery to work, with it being a fast service and there is little room for error, especially now. During the holiday stretch, any retailer looking to increase sales with a same-day service can partner with a Same-Day Courier like A-1 Express to implement a sound program in a short period of time. The New York Courier has a national footprint and the expertise to develop a same-day solution that will last.