All retailers, even those with private fleets, should consider multiple delivery-carrier scenarios for last-mile success, says Bill Catania, chief executive officer and founder of OneRail.

A recent OneRail survey reveals that 73% of retailers operating their own private fleets feel they don’t provide adequate capacity during demand spikes, Catania says. Of course, most retailers don’t own fleets, so they rely on third-party courier or delivery services. Even there, 69% say their contracted carriers don’t offer sufficient capacity, according to the report. “They felt that relying on a single carrier is detrimental to their business.”

Catania compares the situation to owing a stock versus a mutual fund: A single stock goes up and down, while a fund containing many stocks spreads the risk. “As a retailer, your job should be to create a more delivery and more delivery options, whether it's speed or on service level. The more diversity in that network, the less risk, the more success.”

Every retail sector is aware of the delivery capacity issue to some extent, he says. “About 58% of the retailers had awareness that they would lose sales because of limited capacity. We also found about 81% percent said they could increase their average order value if they had more flexible options for delivery and shipping. I guess that all ties back to what the consumers say — 96% percent of them say delivery and shipping is integral to their purchase decision. That's a key statistic.”

Last-mile delivery is essential to a retailer's success, and three things go into that: clean order data, visibility to where the order is at any point in the delivery process, and utilizing a multiple-carrier strategy. “Having a solution that could bring you many delivery partners, with one plug-in to your order data, is really the key to success,” Catania says.