You already know that it’s the age of on-demand services. You know that consumers are mixing online and offline channels to interact with businesses. You know they come in with the expectation for top notch delivery options.
Just think about the swarms of gig economy apps which get people to clean your apartments, drive you around, do your shopping or deliver you just about anything you can think of, all at the distance of a click. The point being, consumers of today expect gratification to be on-demand.
But what does on-demand really mean?
For most newcomers to the concept, it conjures up the idea of same-hour delivery for perishable verticals like food — I’m hungry and I want my food now. One might be inclined to think that on-demand is all about the immediacy of service and the allure of instant gratification — but that might not be enough.
What consumers really want is not just speed for speed’s sake, it’s convenience that they’re after.
Sometimes, speed is the most convenient option. But, convenience means whatever suits you best. It means being able to choose what you want, when and where you want it — sometimes that means immediate delivery, sometimes it doesn’t.
Rapid delivery is of course essential to convenience, but it’s only a means to an end.
If your customer has plans to be somewhere, same-hour delivery is utterly useless to them unless they can dictate exactly what suits their schedule. Otherwise, it just means they have to wait around for yet another delivery slot, albeit a far more efficient one.
According to research from Statista, 72% of consumers would buy more items and more frequently if there were convenient delivery. 63% of consumers are willing to pay higher price for on-demand services. 54% of high street shoppers already browse stores with the expectation of delivery options that prioritise speed and convenience.
What these figures show is that, if brick and mortars want to adapt digitally capture revenue from the approximately 45 million online shoppers in the UK today, they need to compete by convenience.
That’s why, in recognition of these business needs, Quiqup offers a range of on-demand delivery solutions. SMEs looking to start delivering can use the Quiqdash web-app to instantly request or schedule our Quiqees (our drivers) to pick up goods and drop them off to a single or multiple locations. Larger enterprises, on the other hand, can use the Quiqup API integration service to inject on-demand logistics into their e-commerce platform — which essentially adds flexible delivery options at checkout. What’s more, customers using Quiqup’s logistics platform can simply send a text saying ‘DELIVER’ when it suits them, and their goods will be with them within the hour.
Behind all the talk about instant gratification and the on-demand economy is one critical driver — the age old problem of how to master time. It has always been a commodity of sorts, but in the digital age humanity has found an increasing number of ways to dissect and use time with exponentially clinical efficiency — and breeding with it this culture of convenience.
The consumer of today recognises the shortage of time, they want to get the most out of every nanosecond, and retailers need to cater to this preference.
Make no mistake. Retailers are battling in a marketplace that champions convenience. Adapt, or atrophy.
Tim, Business Content Writer
