What is Delivery Speed? 6 Ways to Achieve Fast Delivery Speed

If you are a logistics or delivery business, read these 6 tips that can help 5x grow your delivery speed.

Do you know:

• 43% of consumers prefer their orders to be delivered faster.
• Over 80% of eCommerce customers want same-day shipping. 

These are not just mere delivery speed statistics but rather your customers’ expectations. They want their goods to be delivered at the fastest turnaround. All thanks to hyperlocal delivery brands, who have spoiled the customers. Now, we cannot go back. (Just kidding).

Don’t worry; you can still up your game and work on increasing the speed of delivery. Irrespective of the fact that you are a local business or a Pune-based company delivering goods in Aamchi Mumbai.

We are unfolding 6 strategies that can help you achieve lightning-bolt-fast delivery. But before we discuss that, let’s understand what’s the delivery speed and how it’s beneficial for your business and your customers.

What is Delivery Speed?

Delivery speed explains how effectively and efficiently goods, services, and information of value are transported from the manufacturing hub/fulfillment center to the point of administration. Its ultimate bottom line is to help businesses:

• Optimise operational efficiency.
• Stay competitive.
• Positively influence customer satisfaction.

Delivery speed is a very important aspect in shipping, cold chain supply, food delivery, or project management.

What is the Importance of Delivery Speed (For  Business and Customers)?

💡 For Businesses

High delivery speed is crucial for last mile or on-demand delivery businesses because:

1. Customer Satisfaction	Fast delivery enhances customer expectations and experiences. Thus, leading to more repeat customers.
2. Competitive Edge	Businesses with swift deliveries often become trailblazers and set a unique identity for themselves. Just like Blinkit (the speediest delivery partner).
3. Operational Efficiency	High delivery speed is often achieved through an efficient logistics process. This helps reduce costs and improve resource utilisation.
4. Inventory Management	Faster delivery means less inventory, resulting in reduced inventory holding costs.
5. Market Responsiveness	Quick delivery lets businesses adjust their product offerings and move towards more in-demand products. It lets businesses: Meet changing customer preferences. Respond to trends. Capitalize on emerging opportunities. Remain competitive and agile in dynamic markets.

💡 For Customers

High delivery speed is also crucial for customers because:

1. Convenience	Faster delivery makes it convenient for customers to receive goods in less time.
3. Instant Gratification	Quick deliveries offer instant gratification with instant access to products and services.
3. Meeting Urgent Needs	Fast deliveries promptly meet customers’ time-sensitive needs or emergency needs.
4. Enhanced Customer Experience	Prompt delivery inculcates a high degree of satisfaction among customers.
5. Less Anxiety	Faster delivery reduces waiting time, uncertainty, and anxiety around product arrival.

The benefits of fast delivery speed, inarguably, are what most businesses crave for, so here’s how to achieve them.

6 Ways to Raise Delivery Speed (Notes for Delivery Businesses)

Improving delivery speed lets businesses meet customer expectations spot on and even helps maintain a competitive edge. Here are just 6 ways your business can increase delivery speed:

1. Invest in “Route Optimisation Software”

Investing in route optimising software helps plan optimal delivery routes that are time and fuel-saving. Very useful for delivery or logistics businesses with a large fleet of vehicles.

Route optimisation leverages advanced algorithms and rule engines to determine time-efficient routes. TrackoMile’s automation-driven route optimization software suggests the most optimal routes by evaluating over 120+ variables like traffic, distance, weather conditions, delivery time slots, road restrictions, capacity, etc.

The best part, it even helps you determine the most optimal trip sequence and plan stops for delivery vehicles. Great way to achieve fast delivery.

❌ Don’t Plan Delivery Route with Free Mapping Tools Free mapping tools like Google Maps or Waze may look very tempting to use but aren’t viable for large delivery businesses. Use them only when you have 1-2 delivery vehicles, performing 5-6 deliveries in a day. We assume you have over 100 vehicles, attempting 1000+ deliveries in a day. If that’s the right guess, then you need TrackoMile’s advanced last mile software with a route planning algorithm.

2. Fix Loopholes in the Supply Chain

If you haven’t sat down yet to analyse your supply chain processes — then do it today. Maybe it’s your supply process that’s flawed and hampering your speed of delivery. Right from picking and aligning inventory to the packing and delivery process – look for gaps.

Identify weaknesses, implement the right technology, maintain strong vendor relationships, optimise inventory management, and deeply monitor performance. More than that, continuous improvement, data analysis, and staying flexible to market needs can help you form a robust supply chain. To ultimately improve delivery speed.

3. Streamline Inventory Management

As a delivery business, make sure to implement just-in-time inventory practices to avoid excess inventory and storage costs. Have optimal stock levels and avoid overstocking. Make sure to:

• Track stock levels.
• Optimise ordering and replenishment processes.
• Minimise carrying costs (by eliminating wasteful processes)
• Ensure sufficient availability of products when needed. 

Effective inventory management would not just prevent stockouts and reduce inventory costs but will help you meet customers’ delivery demands head-on.

4. Choose Reliable Delivery Partners & Carriers

Research and connect with reliable shipping carriers and courier partners who offer fast and cost-effective services. Discuss the average shipping time and complete the delivery process even before signing the service level agreements. Such choices can help you improve delivery speed.

Connect with partners who offer multiple shipping options to aid in your desired speed of delivery.

Customers love it when brands offer them multiple delivery options. If you consider giving them delivery options of one-hour delivery or same-day delivery in advance, they will know what to expect. 

You can set up express, standard, and economy shipping methods — based on the type of goods. Customers can easily pick the one that suits their needs and budget.

5. Go Big on Cross-Docking & Drop Shipping

Investing in cross-docking facilities can help boost delivery speed. In cross-docking, you receive products from suppliers’ warehouses and further ship them directly to customers without storing them. Drop shipping is a similar concept, where you just list the products on a website and act as a mediator between the seller and the buyer, you don’t hold onto any inventory.

As a result, you save on:

• Storage costs
• Handling time

Cross-docking increases delivery speed as it removes the process of long-term storage. You send the incoming goods directly to the delivery destination and enable a more quick and efficient supply chain.

This method will depend on the nature of your business. 

6. Hail Predictive Data Analytics

As a business, make it a habit to collect and analyze data on your customer’s feedback, delivery performance, time of order processing, and dispatching. All these kinds of information will help you identify gaps and help think of some corrective measures to optimize the delivery process.

Many big e-commerce and logistics brands go for the very buzzing “lean principles theory”. The theory suggests that one should eliminate wasteful processes and think of optimising them. Thus, look through every thick and thin to identify the problem areas and work towards rectifying it. 

Last But Important…

Don’t raise the speed of delivery at the cost of forgoing quality and accuracy. Maintain a balance between speedy delivery and quality deliverables. It will take some time, but you will get there.

How Fast Should Be the Delivery Speed? Industry-Wise

There is no fixed delivery time. It varies according to the types of goods, services, customers’ expectations, logistics process, etc. However, here are general guidelines that various industries revolve around:

🍲 Food Delivery	From food delivery services from local restaurants or cloud kitchens, customers expect delivery, typically within 25-30 minutes. This timeline can vary according to the restaurant’s location and capacity.
🚚 E-commerce and Retail	E-commerce companies go for a range of delivery options, like: Same-day or next-day delivery  Standard shipping – 3-7 days Express shipping – 1-3 days The speed of the process is often dependent on the customer’s preferences & willingness to pay extra for fast delivery.
📦 Package & Parcel Delivery	Delivery partners like FedEx, DHL & UPS go for the following delivery types: Overnight delivery Ground shipping 2-day delivery Here the delivery speed depends on the customers’ urgency and the recipient & shippers’ budget.
💊💉 Specialty Items	Merchants dealing in urgent healthcare products, perishable goods, or time-sensitive documents, often go for a few hours and same-day delivery. Apps like PharmEasy have a delivery window of up to 24 hours.
⛵International shipments	Delivery speed of international shipments is dependent on customs clearance, overseas distance, and shipping method.  It can range from 6-7 days to even several weeks.
🕴️ B2B Deliveries	For B2B deliveries, delivery speed is dependent on — contractual agreements and the nature of the products or services delivered.  Same-day delivery could be key for urgent supplies or longer lead times for non-urgent goods/services.

🔎 Key Takeaway

The right delivery speed is a constant battle of balancing customer expectations while managing operational costs. Businesses should consider factors like shipping costs, customer preferences, competition, and the nature of the products or services when determining their delivery speed options.

Customer feedback and market research can help determine the appropriate delivery speed for a specific business and its target audience.

FAQs on Delivery Speed

• What affects delivery speed?

  Delivery speed is often affected by factors like distance, weather, mode of transportation, order processing time, and logistics efficiency.

• Why is speedy delivery so important?

  Speedy delivery is important to retain customer satisfaction and reduce inventory holding costs for businesses while maintaining their competitive edge.

• Difference between same-day delivery and overnight delivery.

  Same-day delivery is when goods/services reach the administration point within a few hours or before the same-day ends. Overnight delivery means that customers will receive their products maximum by the next day.

• How is shipping speed calculated?

  The total time is calculated by summing up handling time and transit time — all the way from ship-from location(s) to the customer's approximate location.