How to deliver sustainably
(When your customers want it now.)
Customers have grown to expect speedy deliveries - ideally next day. But that comes at a cost - an environmental one.
Next day delivery is inefficient. It means half empty delivery vans doing pick up and drop offs, often travelling further than they otherwise would.
It’s hard NOT to offer a next day service if you’re committed to having happy customers. But how does that sit with an ethical business that’s trying to reduce its environmental footprint?
Photo by Sahand Babali on Unsplash
Option 1
Suck it up. Deal with it. It’s not a good thing - but customer service is critical, so bung a bit more towards your carbon offsetting budget and move on.
Option 2
Refuse to offer next day services - even if it means you lose business and there’s no eco-benefit because your (ex) customer still gets their next day service (thanks to your competitor).
Option 3
Spend hours and days and weeks trying to work out which delivery company is the most environmentally friendly. Only to discover that it’s virtually impossible to determine. And that the answer changes depending on where your customer lives.
Option 4
Give your customer choices and information. Your customer feels empowered. She’s impressed by your knowledge and commitment. She feels informed, educated and more confident. She makes greener choices - not just once, not just when she buys from you - but whenever she buys anything.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m liking option 4.
But how to make that happen?
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
The issues with sustainable deliveries
There are four main things to know about ‘green’ deliveries.
Next day delivery simply doesn’t cut it, environmentally. The rush to get the parcel to the customer means a long chain of half-loaded vehicles making longer trips. Oops.
‘The last mile’ is a key concept in green deliveries. The final mile of a delivery accounts for an eye wateringly high percentage of the total emissions of a journey. Cut that - or make it greener - and the impact is phenomenal.
Missed deliveries are a big player. Re-deliveries, or the customer driving to collect, are a significant cause of emissions. Dwain McDonald, CEO of DPD UK, says that the company’s 99.8% of parcels delivered first time means: “That’s a massive 4.5 million extra return journeys avoided or 3.5 million fewer miles travelled and 1,233 tonnes of CO2 not being needlessly generated.”
Working with a delivery service with a great percentage of first delivery successes reduces the carbon footprint of your deliveries - and makes for happy customers. (Being aware that a ‘successful’ delivery doesn’t mean ‘signed for by the neighbours’ cat Jeronimo who maneuvered the parcel onto the shed roof’. Obviously.)
Most customers have simply never thought about the carbon footprint of their deliveries. Or, if they have, they probably don’t have the understanding of logistics to appreciate the environmental impact of quick deliveries, missed deliveries, or the ‘last mile’.
Whilst it’s not strictly a delivery issue, it’s also worth thinking about the impact of returns. A customer who is aware of their impact is less likely to order two or three of the same product in different sizes, knowing that they’re going to make a return.
What we can do
1) Select a sustainable(ish) delivery company
We’d all love to use a delivery company that uses electric vehicles and renewable energy whilst paying its drivers a living wage.
If you - and you customers - are in London you *might* hit gold.
Outside the M25 and you’ve got about as much hope of that as you have of Elon Musk personally making your deliveries in his Tesla.
But we can still choose delivery companies whose processes and practices make a difference.
When looking at delivery partners, make it clear that their practices matter to you. Ask them:
What is your first delivery success rate?
What proportion of your fleet is electric/hydrogen/bikes?
Do your distribution hubs run on green energy (and what do they mean by ‘green energy’)?
What options are there for smart lockers and collection hubs?
2) Help our customers make more informed choices
Ethical businesses have a really important role in helping customers consume more consciously. Giving your customers the information they need to make more sustainable choices can be one of the most important ethical impacts that you achieve.
Patrick Browne, director of global sustainability at UPS says it succinctly: "I don't think the average consumer understands the environmental impact of having something tomorrow vs. two days from now. The more time you give me, the more efficient I can be."
We can help our customers understand that.
Use your check out, delivery, returns and ‘about’ pages to talk about sustainable deliveries.
Tell your customers about the impact of next day deliveries. Tell them about the impact of missed deliveries. Tell them about the impact of unnecessary returns. Tell them what you’re doing to minimise the impact of your deliveries. It doesn’t have to be judgmental - it can be done in a way that your customers come away more confident in their own choices, and feeling positive towards you for ‘walking the walk’ and helping them on their own sustainability journey.
3) Discourage next day delivery
We’ve all been there: the panic of the forgotten birthday, or the shoes that fitted your little one last week but now send her into a howling, tortured mess.
Sometimes next day delivery is something we really, really need.
Sometimes, it’s just convenient.
According to YouGov, the preferred delivery option for 52% of UK customers is next day delivery. And yet 94% care about the environment. Clearly, there’s a mismatch between knowledge and intent.
Offering next day delivery - but encouraging customers to only use it if they really need it - is probably a happy balance between customer service and reducing your environmental impact.
4) Encourage sustainable delivery
It’s a bit of a carrot and a stick. We can discourage next day deliveries - and we can actively encourage more sustainable deliveries.
Josué Velázquez Martínez, a research scientist at MIT's Center for Transportation and Logistics, found in a test in Mexico that 52% of consumers were willing to wait longer when told at checkout that slower shipping would save trees.
Rebadging ‘standard’ delivery as ‘sustainable’ delivery is going to encourage conscious consumers to wait that bit longer.
5) Offer click and collect
Collection points, including smart lockers, can be a great way of reducing the impact of the last mile - providing the customer picks it up on foot/bike, or as part of a car journey they were making anyway. Again, it’s up to us to sure that the customer knows this!
I’d love to know: what are your pain points when it comes to ethical deliveries?