How to tackle Black Friday with last mile delivery

Black Friday is the big event of the year when Christmas shopping comes early and last-mile delivery plays a key role. During 2020, more than 50 million shipments were recorded thanks to the e-commerce drive (Source: UNO Logística, 2020). Therefore, logistics companies expect this trend to continue to grow.

If last-mile delivery is a challenge for companies at other times of the year, at a time when shipments are skyrocketing, it will be even more evident. If you want to know how to prepare your capillary distribution for Black Friday, take a look at the following tips:

1. Prepare well in advance

Companies specializing in capillary logistics distribution have been preparing for months for the disproportionate increase in sales and possible saturation of the system. Everything that you organized 15 days or a month in advance will have to be structured twice as far in advance.

This is because the possible setbacks and errors that you may encounter in your planning will be easier to correct. Besides, you can continue adjusting the preparation as the trends of this Black Friday are known.

2. Analyze past exercises

It has already been mentioned above that the pandemic has driven e-commerce and, consequently, last-mile delivery to unexpected levels. But how has your logistics been affected during previous Black Fridays, and has your industry been impacted to a greater or lesser extent?

In order to clarify all these doubts, there is nothing better than looking at the logistics exercises of previous years. Has a noticeable or very gradual increase been detected? Are pick-up points being used more or do you prefer home delivery? With all this data, a rough estimate can be made of what will happen on Black Friday with last-mile delivery.

3. Make an estimate of delivery times based on actual capacity

Optimizing delivery routes alone is not enough to be able to deliver efficiently and on time. You must calculate the maximum delivery capacity to be able to match the amount of shipments affected by your customers due to Black Friday with the usual distribution volume.

For example, let's say your fleet of vehicles has a capacity of 10,000 shipments and you usually have an additional gap of 10% in a relatively stable season. Well, in this case, add the extra 10% and the equipment could already carry up to 11,000 packages.

4. Reinforce staff if necessary

This is a very common practice that transport companies, couriers and warehouses do to meet the peak demand for shipments. To do this, you must always have updated information on drivers, warehouse managers and other profiles at hand.

If it is feasible and you have considered temporarily expanding the staff, it is highly recommended to carry out the whole process well in advance in order to train them and be ready for the Black Friday logistics.

5. Maintain real-time communication

Finally, as is often said, communication is very important. It is even more so at critical moments in any project. Alerting and receiving warnings of mishaps encountered in transportation is crucial for customer satisfaction.

Existen computer programs that help monitor, track and talk to drivers in real time. If you have not yet incorporated one into your logistics management, now is a good time to consider and implement it.

Faced with an increasingly demanding customer, logistics must be not only fast, but also effective in resolving potential problems, and also sustainable.For this, good planning, preparation for setbacks and, above all, communication is essential to avoid being left behind and to meet an increasingly high increase in sales.

Logistics during Black Friday is of vital importance, we must take advantage of online sales and not wait for our customers to receive their orders late.