Multichannel / Operations
Instant Gratification Made Easy with Mail Call’s ‘Want It Now’ Service
- 5th October
- Natasha Sholl 100
With competition heating up in the e-commerce arena, delivery options provide a point of difference for retailers. Want It Now combines a unique countdown tracker with its same-day courier service for the complete customer experience.
While online shopping is clearly booming, there is one area where bricks and mortar has the upper hand – instant gratification. Or does it? Want It Now is the latest offering from Mail Call Couriers, providing same-day delivery options that e-tailers can offer customers across metropolitan Sydney and Melbourne.
Rolled out 12 months ago by sisters Fiona Pearse and Emma Cronin in response to the lack of flexible same day delivery options, Want It Now features real-time online and phone tracking offering a minute-to-minute countdown so you know exactly when your purchase will walk through your door.
“It provides 100% transparency for the retailer and customer,” says Cronin, Managing Director of Mail Call Couriers.
The technology doesn’t replace the current delivery options, but rather is integrated into a retailer’s online store to provide a point of difference. The cost to the customer varies depending on the retailer – some choose to absorb the cost while others pass on an extra $10 – $15 on top of standard delivery options.
The Want It Now service is being utilised by a broad range of retailers, with the fashion industry benefiting the most. Impulse purchases can be made online with customers wanting to “buy today, wear tonight,” says Cronin. Fancy dress and consumer electronics retailers are also using the service, as well as the vitamin industry, where quick delivery of goods is essential.
Appliance Warehouse trialed Want It Now on some of its products, and received a 90% uptake of the service. They received feedback from one happy customer whose coffee machine had broken the morning that she was expecting visitors for lunch.
“She went online at 9.15am, the courier had delivered a new coffee machine by 11am and she was making coffee at lunchtime for the girls,” explains Cronin. “It was such a fantastic experience for her. As a retailer, to be able to offer a point of differentiation – in a marketplace that is losing so much of the market share to overseas – with a new delivery option is huge.”
So how are delivery options influencing the way customers shop?
“Most consumers are shopping online because it’s convenient, they don’t have time to go to the shopping centres anymore, and I think that you’re entitled to have options,” Cronin points out. “You may not choose the faster delivery method on every occasion but in some instances you ultimately want something delivered that day.”
