The B2C marketplace represented a huge business in 2017, generating a cumulative total of £145.6 billion in sales. As you’d imagine, the market-leading B2C delivery companies have profited hugely from these sales, while creating a viable business model that optimizes margins and delivers savings to clients.
In this article, we’ll explore this further while asking what lessons small businesses can learn from larger scale B2C delivery firms.
1. Promote your Service Creatively and Effectively
We live in an age of market comparison, where customers are able to compare real-time prices quickly and in a way that affords them the best possible deals. This trend has also extended to the delivery marketplace, with platforms such as Parcel2Go enabling users to seek out the most competitive quotes from several of the market-leading couriers (such as DHL).
As a small business, you need to follow a similar path, by registering with relevant comparison websites and striving to promote your brand through organic and widely accessible channels. This, in conjunction with paid and targeted advertising, can boost your business’s profile while also helping to target new demographics.
2. Offer Choice and Flexibility to your Customers
We’ve seen various developments in the world of B2C delivery of late, particularly in terms of the options available to customers. More specifically, B2C delivery firms are offering a wider range of options to their customers, from timed next day deliveries to same day alternatives in some instances.
This is appealing to the current generation of customers, who are able to book delivery slots that suit their circumstances and achieve far greater value for their hard-earned money. So, by offering choice to your customers in terms of how products are made, sold and delivered, you can improve your service considerably over time.
3. Customer Service is Everything
On a final note, it’s important to note that the market-leading delivery firms in the UK place a significant emphasis on customer service. This is a key lesson for any small business to heed, as sustained growth is reserved for firms that satisfy the needs of their consumer base, build loyalty and leverage this to reach a wide target market.
At the heart of this is an open line of communication, which enables your representatives to interact proactively with customers, highlight potential issues and capitalize on cross-selling opportunities where possible. This taps into the marketing potential of customer service, which enables you reps to interact with customers when they’re most engaged with the brand.
