What Is The Last Mile eCommerce?

Mark: Hi, it's Mark Bossert from Top Local. Here with Mark Huggan of Phantom Couriers in Vancouver. One of BC's 100 fastest growing companies and of course the best, the best courier company in Vancouver period. And we're going to talk about last mile eCommerce today. How're you doing Mark?

Mark: Doing good. Had a busy day today so just putting everything back in its right place.

Mark: So what's meant by last mile delivery?

Mark: Ok so last mile is after all, you create something, say you had a beard oil company and you created all your product and you have it pick and and is taken to a distribution, like a fulfillment centre and that's maybe were your Shopify starts off for the orders are placed. And we want this beard oil to go to these hundred people next day. So we would go pick it up from the shelving and then have it all, we would just go and pick up all he way bills and boom products all delivered. And we do that both directions. So we'll go from manufacturers to fulfillment and from fulfillment to customers. So B to C and C to B.

That C to B didn't sound right. That's not right. But we'll take it from the manufacturer to fulfillment, fulfillment to the customer.

Mark: CBD is a whole other thing.

Mark: Yeah we do that too. Shhh. We don't talk about that.

Mark: So how does last mile delivery work?

Mark: Well basically it's an online order from the customer through the website and it has to be fulfilled. So you just want your thing ordered. Like Amazon, they've got all their fleet of minions out there delivering. That's last mile. And we do the exact same thing. But we might be doing it for like a local company or an international company that has a distribution centre in the lower mainland that needs their customer taken care of. And they don't want to use Amazon. They want to use us as part of their company. So we integrate with them. So we might want to do some cross branding or might just be representing the brand when we drop off. And just getting it to the customers, so they're satisfied. And it keeps it really tight.

Like say contact lenses for Clearly Contacts. They have their same day and their overnight. So their overnight stuff is to last mile per se. It's put in the post and it's delivered regular way. But their same day last mile, it's like it been manufactured elsewhere or it's put together in their warehouse. Like the glasses are manufactured different places and put together and brought forward. Or contact lenses are pick and packs and we just go and get them and drop them off with people same day on demand last mile eCom because it comes from their website.

Mark: So that's really what's meant by this whole eCommerce delivery. If you're not, anything outside of Amazon, its got to be fulfilled somehow and you guys are just part of that chain basically.

Mark: 100%. Like you know, it works all over the place. Cannabis is our biggest new eCom. You know, order it online. We will do the last mile. Last 200 feet if they want it to be that way, that short of a distance. We're there. Whatever's placed in order on the internet, it has to be done. That's where the courier comes into play. And it's a super new, exciting, awesome world to be playing in. Considering the internet's 20 years old, I mean come on, 25 years old for us. It's finally kicking butt and we're part of it. The courier's part of it.

Mark: So is this a fairly important part of your business now?

Mark: Oh yeah. It's grown by leaps and bounds. We get a lot of calls for big quotes, like bigger quotes than we've ever seen before and a lot of work to get done. It's going to employ a lot of people. So it's really building and building everyday. Everyday this is a new concern like, oh how are we going to manage this. This is an awful lot to get going. So our scalability is put to the test and it seems like every day, oh scale plus 10 again. So let's keep going. And that's the way it's going to be. That's where, that's keeping us pretty sharp.

Mark: So I have an eCommerce store. How can I improve my last mile delivery? I'm not using Amazon, I'm going to end up with you guys. How do I improve that?

Mark: Well we just have to get in touch and to make sure we're speaking the same language, that whatever you tell your customers is actually really happening and that's where a lot of people fall short. The customer expectation from, say your company, is this and then they're just like, oh whatever, just get it there, and it's like it didn't work. So as long as we're on the same page and we just act exactly the same way every time, all the time, it's perfect. You know there's a lot of missed things. Like people are not home and just mandatory fields need to be filled out. We iron out all the wrinkles before we pull the trigger and our success rate's really high. And we're able to find people and we keep in touch with the end user through technology, simply. Like the driver goes there, and nobody phones anymore. It's just a quick text and then it's logged and the time call, it's like, come back in two hours, fine. It's easy to bill that way and the customers aren't shocked when they get their second charge or something, they know what's going on. It keeps a happy customer.

Mark: And so is that what you would consider logistics? Like how does that figure in to that efficiency of last mile eCommerce?

Mark: I don't think it's traditional logistics as much as acting as a customer service personnel for the creator of the product, whatever is being sold. It might be as simple as, like there's unique people like Etsy. There's a lot of Etsy people in Vancouver that need eCom. So they're just taking orders, and we'll go to a house and pick it up or we go to a fulfillment centre and pick it up or we'll pick it up at one place, take it to another place, wait a few hours, go back and pick it up again and deliver it. And it's just keeping your eye on it, tracking it and making sure that it's delivered to the right place at the right time to the right person. It gets a little tricky but it's straight up, making sure it happens. Making sure the people, and the more you deliver, the more they make and it just keeps building too. So more happy customers equals more orders. It's fun stuff. I dig it.

Mark: So there you go. If your eCommerce company is looking for delivery in Vancouver, the guys to talk to are Phantom Couriers. You can reach them at 604-899-5447. They'll get it done. They'll get it done right. They'll get it done fast. Thanks Mark

Mark: Right on. Yeah it's been a good chat. Makes me think about it.