The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about a plethora of changes across various industries. But one that is most likely to stick around is contactless deliveries.
Owing to social distancing norms and safety precautions, contactless deliveries became essential and for all the right reasons.
What is contactless delivery?
The concept refers to the delivery of orders while maintaining limited or no contact between delivery personnel and the order recipient or the customer.
It simply means that there should not be any direct contact between the delivery partner and the customer
In fact from pickup to drop, all principles of contactless deliveries should be followed throughout the last mile delivery process to ensure essential services and goods are delivered in a safe and protected manner.
While it is not just restricted to essentials anymore, the pandemic did compel the e-commerce industry to adopt contactless deliveries to make sure that customers could have access to necessities.
Alongside sanitization of hands and packages, along with wearing masks became necessary health protocols, contactless deliveries ensured that there is at least a distance of six feet between the delivery personnel and the consumer.
This practice allowed orders to be delivered either at the customer’s doorstep or at another place as per their convenience…
The customer can inform the delivery personnel in advance about the place and timing of delivery via digital means. The payment for such deliveries is also made online to avoid any physical contact.
How does contactless delivery work?
The whole purpose is to make sure that there is no need to sign for a delivery or exchange goods in person, so as to avoid all sorts of contact with the delivery person.
The order is dropped off at a pre-decided location and a notification is sent to the customer via text, phone call, or email.
The customer is also able to provide instructions as to where the order can be dropped off and whether there is a need to ring the doorbell or not.
Furthermore, depending on the carrier service, the delivery person might take a picture of where he/she has dropped off the order and send it to the customer for added convenience.
Contactless deliveries should ideally be undertaken when the order is either paid for online or can be paid at the time of delivery via online means. Retail Technology Innovation