Delivering a package to someone drama-free depends on one of two things: A recipient home to accept the shipment or having a secure place for the courier to store the item. Since most front porches aren’t outfitted with a lockbox, parcel companies or U.S. Postal Service workers in the field must leave the item on the steps outside a home or sitting between the storm door and front door. This is less than ideal, and a recent op-ed from the retail trade publication eDelivery says that “flexible parcel delivery” is going to become standard—and soon.
Customers have come to expect weekend or even next-day delivery. Since they are shopping online and making real-time orders, they might wonder why the items can’t be dropped in the mail just as immediately. According to the article, the delivery company DPDgroup says “many customers now specifically request a weekend delivery because they want to be sure they are going to be at home to receive it.” DPD delivers 4.8 million packages across the globe each day, according to internal figures. The eDelivery article goes on to say that DPD plans to “take on more than 600 part-time employed drivers while creating 100 warehouse jobs in regional depots to support the expansion of its weekend service.”
As a company in the customized box sector, we follow these new delivery trends with interest because it’s important that the custom boxes our customers ship can keep up with these trends.
What’s the takeaway from this service that’s sure to become an international trend? For one, we can see the importance of getting things in the mail as soon as possible. As a custom box company that puts the tools of creation in its customers’ hands, why not put some personalization of those orders? Several companies use corrugated that is printed with a random repeat pattern featuring their logo, tagline, or value statement.
If product providers and delivery companies are starting to work in tandem to guarantee delivery within a three-hour window every evening, they can also plan ahead and streamline a few things while they’re at it. With Packsize on their side, the shipping department can install a box-making machine inside the outbound warehouse. The boxes are created just-in-time and are crafted to fit orders. By creating any box at any time, companies are able to turn orders around quicker by eliminating box size guesswork. In addition, they eliminate box inventory and save time on inventory management. Because of this, many Packsize customers can pack the shipping box faster with fewer employees when they use an On Demand Packaging® systems. The overall result are happy customers who keep ordering more.