In 2005 Amazon debuted two-day delivery and changed the fulfillment market forever. But what if retailers of any type or size could offer one-hour shipping?
It turns out they can. Advantage Solutions’ Quick Commerce, a new way for retailers to drive growth and simplify order management, was designed as a diverse delivery-on-demand vehicle for consumers. That delivery-on-demand scenario could be buy online pickup in store, same-day delivery, or even one-hour delivery. “It’s basically putting the power in the consumer’s hands,” says Brandon Thornell, executive vice president for Advantage Solutions.
That customer delivery flexibility will have significant impact on retailers and brands that previously didn’t offer these options, as well as those that rely on customers using third-party delivery apps. “Retailers and brands are potentially losing out on revenue because they don’t have something like a Quick Commerce to help them,” he explains.
“By keeping customers on their existing website or store app, participating retailers can now deliver fuller baskets due to a unique back-end order management system that pulls inventory from wherever it’s located in the supply chain. For instance, if any item is out of stock locally, it can be sourced from another store or even a distribution center within the retailer’s network. The customer is none the wiser as all items will be delivered by the stated due date. They will no longer receive frustrating out-of-stock or replacement messages after they check out.”
Thornell estimates the value for the delivery-on-demand space in the U.S. to be roughly $12.8 billion in 2023. Retailers saw a massive spike in demand for quick-order delivery during COVID when people couldn’t go out to visit stores. Their shopping behaviors and expectations changed, and many didn’t change back. “That’s really what drives the demand on this,” Thornell says. “It is imperative that retailers offer consumers that flexibility to get products the way they want.”
Quick Commerce is easily embedded into a retailer’s existing website or store app, sources products from wherever is necessary to deliver a full shopping cart and provides same-day or next-day delivery through Advantage Solutions’ network of delivery partners. Unlike with third-party apps, Quick Commerce allows retailers to maintain total control over the customer experience and delivery notifications.
This software is ideal for companies looking for a cost-effective way to improve their technology infrastructure and bolster brand loyalty with customers. This could be especially beneficial for a retailer that lost market share within the past few years, either due to fulfillment limitations or competition with brands that already offer more flexible delivery options.
The Quick Commerce product is part of Advantage Solutions’ fulfillment and logistics offering, moving the company from solutions provider to multichannel fulfillment and logistics provider. Thornell says now is the right time for a product like this to make a splash in the market because the industry is due for a shakeup.
“Quick Commerce is the new frontier of fulfillment,” he explains. “One of the biggest turning points in my career in consumer fulfillment was when Amazon went to two-day delivery for Amazon Prime. Customers had only known historical fulfillment of five to seven business days for delivery, and even further back when we ordered products from a catalog, it took four to six weeks.”
Four-to-six-week delivery eventually became five to seven business days, then Amazon offered it in two days, and two days has become one day — or one hour. Consumers are now living in a same-day world, and Quick Commerce offers a sustainable one-hour delivery vehicle. This changes the fulfillment landscape completely. “We want to be an early driver and adopter of that new frontier as a leading-edge supply chain business with an advantage,” Thornell says.