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Shipping Shift: Why Not Use Every Store As Its Own DC?
And FedEx had little reason to look into such issues, because it would accomplish nothing but hurt its on-time delivery record. These are your distribution partners, and FedEx is one of the better ones. Taking the deliveries back—at least within XX miles of your stores—provides quite a few benefits. First, there is the delivery from a smiling person with your store’s logo on his/her uniform. Second, there is the ability to offer same-day delivery, which can be the beginning of an advantage over pure-play E-tailers. (Why buy from Macys.com instead of Amazon? Now you have an answer.)
There’s also complete visibility into tracking. With a local delivery, tracking is somewhat easier; you can track the trucks, the packages and the drivers. And unlike the FedEx example, no one at Target.com will have a reason to look the other way if Target packages are not arriving when and how they should.
If you’re going to be blamed for how your packages are delivered, shouldn’t you at least own the process? This is all about extending the brand. For some, this approach could go beyond delivery, with the package person asking if the customer needs help setting up the product or maybe carrying the box into the house. Or maybe it’s someone who asks if the customer needs any assistance with the product and, if so, can immediately call someone on his or her mobile to immediately talk with that customer.
The traditional argument has been that a brick-and-mortar only fights against an E-tailer by pushing the in-store experience. This approach enables the merged-channel retailer to extend that experience right back into the customer’s front yard and maybe through the front door.
How far you want to push this service is a very legitimate question. Back in 2007, the Tweeter electronics chain—OK, so the company went bankrupt the next year. Does that mean it didn’t have some good ideas?—started exploring using virtual reality to test surround-sound home entertainment systems. The idea was to do things that no E-tailer could match, by leveraging its ability to get personal with customers.
It’s not a bad idea to think about, especially the next time you hear about a flat-screen television thrown over some customer’s fence.
Cards issued by European banks when used online cross border don't usually support AVS checks. So, when a European card is used with a billing address that's in the US, an ecom merchant wouldn't necessarily know that the shipping zip code doesn't match the billing code.
-Marc
