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7 best practices for successful Christmas deliveries

3 December 2021 | 5 min read

Christmas is the peak season for many merchants, producers and carriers, who are already working in the background. But this year, between the shortage of elves and the rising costs of some services, you’ll have to be ingenious to meet your customers’ expectations!
While there are no miracles, these 7 tips will help you deliver your orders on time and avoid disappointment around the tree.

Get ready to pack a lot

This advice is obviously not meant to be naughty. But to be able to deliver efficiently, it is better to be well organized to prepare your parcels quickly and well. Depending on the type of goods to be transported, several options are available:

• Choose customized packaging, in which your products will fit perfectly. According to the British packaging specialist, DS Smith, the rate of empty space in packages is around 43%! Hunting for wasted space is a winning strategy for your finances… and for the planet.
• Store as many containers and packing materials as possible to avoid any risk of breakage in the final stretch.
• Exclude from your holiday offer the most complicated products to ship, with atypical dimensions or that require too much preparation time.

Optimize vehicle loading with transport software

There are some transport software such as AntsRoute that include smart route planning module, which is very useful to optimize parcel deliveries. For this, you start by entering the essential settings for your business:

• Addresses of customers to be delivered, pickup locations, unloading sites, etc.
• Deadline for each delivery
• Maximum loading of vehicles in pallets, in packages, in m³, etc.

Thanks to artificial intelligence, the software will manage all these settings to maximize the fill rate of each chartered vehicle. The more freight delivery vehicles are filled, the less you need to ship…

The AntsRoute route optimization software.

Offer multiple delivery methods

Providing multiple pick-up or delivery solutions is essential to offer your customers a positive shopping experience all year round. But in times of logistical shortage, diversifying your delivery methods can also save your business, in case of a carrier failure for example.
Depending on your activity and your location, here are 3 examples of simple measures to put in place:

• If your customers are located in the same area as you, you can offer to pick up packages or baskets from partner merchants. More and more local producers are using this type of win-win agreement.
• Are you lucky enough to have your own network of physical stores? Promote click & collect everywhere possible: in your newsletters, on the homepage of your website, in your order conversion tunnel, etc.
• In the weeks leading up to Christmas, consider adding an express delivery option as well, even if it’s not available the rest of the year. Customers who have waited until the last minute will be happy to have the choice, even if it means paying extra for this high-speed delivery.

Communicate before the order is placed

E-mail marketing is your friend, and even more so in December! Plan now the newsletters you will send to your customers to inform them of the deadlines to be delivered before Christmas. Clearly indicate in your newsletter and on your website the deadline of order for each delivery method. A non-validated order is always better than an unhappy customer because you didn’t meet your commitments.

If you use AntsRoute, you can directly connect Mailchimp, Active Campaign or Hubspot software using Zapier. In just a few clicks, the contact information is automatically transferred, without errors or double entries. And in December, every minute counts even more than the rest of the year!

Inform customers about the delivery of their order

Most delivery software like AntsRoute have a feature to automatically notify your customers by email or SMS at each step:

• Estimated delivery date.
• Reminder notification the day before, with an estimated time slot.
• Estimated time of arrival of the driver when the truck is on its way, etc.

This type of notification reassures customers, especially a few days before the holidays, when some of them are particularly anxious.
But consumers are not the only ones to benefit from this reinforced communication. The advantages for companies are also significant! The first-visit delivery rate increases considerably. The customer service, usually already very busy at this time, avoids many time-consuming calls.

The notification system offered by AntsRoute.

Bet on the tracking of packages

Knowing exactly when your package will arrive is great. Knowing exactly where it is is even better!
For a few months now, AntsRoute has been offering its customers an extra feature to allow them to track the progress of the package in real time on tablet or smartphone.
For that, each customer receives by mail or SMS a link of tracking. He just has to click on it to display:

• The geographical area where the driver is located.
• The number of addresses to be delivered before it.
• The estimated time of arrival.
• The contact details of the driver, etc.

The consumers really appreciate this type of service, which is perceived as very fun. They even become addicted to the geolocation of the deliverymen!

The delivery tracking system offered by AntsRoute.

Extend the return time after the holidays

To ease the demands on logistics departments at the end of the year, more and more retailers are extending the return time for packages. Consumers appreciate this type of arrangement, which gives them time to check on their purchases. For you, it saves you from having to manage many pickups at the worst possible time. Logistics and customer services are on edge at this time anyway, so why bother unpacking and managing return packages at the same time?

Are you looking for the best chance to make a successful delivery in the upcoming Christmas season? Try our route optimization software pendant for free during 7 days and without credit card.