Hyperlocal ecommerce- Infusing energy and life in businesses

“As long as technology continues to play a central role in the functioning of businesses, hyperlocal ecommerce is going to diffuse rapidly across boundaries and businesses adopting the hyperlocal model are likely to grow tremendously.”

Introduction

With the increasing adoption of internet and technology-enabled practices, ecommerce took away the world consumers and businesses by storm, changing the way they shop. Ever since then, the industry has been growing phenomenally in the recent years. Moving ahead on the same scale of growth, the new buzz in the ecommerce space is “hyperlocal”.

Yes! Hyperlocal ecommerce, implying extremely local services, refers to meeting the customers’ needs instantly, thereby bringing convenience for them and profits for the business. In ecommerce, this term means an online platform that enables local offline services from anywhere, anytime. By virtue of its nature to bring the retailers and customers closer to each other, it has added great value to every business’s prospects.

The growing hyperlocal culture

Consumers today are extremely wary of their shopping choices and given an option they prefer to choose convenience above everything else. Sellers likewise, are aware of this market reality, and hence scores of retailers may be found committing themselves and investing in online delivery services. Perhaps, changed and evolved consumer behavior is one of the major driving forces that is pushing retailers and sellers to partner with highly efficient, futuristic and economical hyperlocal ecommerce delivery software companies.

Hyperlocal marketplace, backed by a robust software, is the newest trend providing small businesses an opportunity to reach out to more customers online for selling goods and services. The business model is convenient for shoppers too as they can hop from one online store to another for buying their desired product. This has led ecommerce to transform itself into hyperlocal.

Right from ordering a luscious food meal for your family members to availing household services, hyperlocal ecommerce has it all. The modern-day consumers are in awe of whatever arrives to their doorsteps, hyper locally. They are liking every bit of it and businesses too are making the most of their offerings through the adoption of this model.

Role of technology in hyperlocal ecommerce

The hyperlocal model is the one heavily influenced by technology. It is perhaps the state-of-the-art technology behind hyperlocal ecommerce that has kept the interests of businesses and customer in it intact.

Hyperlocal ecommerce, with a robust and techno-savvy hyperlocal ecommerce delivery software at the back end, simply requires assimilating all possible service providers from the local and neighbourhood stores onto the available platforms and giving customers instant access to the stores and outlets in their vicinity, as and when required. Whether you want to order milk, vegetables, grocery, stationery, sumptuous food meals, get laundry services or have your air conditioner repaired and serviced, you can easily get it done with just a few clicks and taps on your smartphone. In the contemporary times, smartphones play an important role in the success of the working and blooming of hyperlocal startups which are buzz in the town.

Different aspects of technology and some salient features can be seen being used by hyperlocal ecommerce delivery software companies in order to reach out and satisfy the growing hyperlocal needs of the customers. Such features are veritably the answer to today’s evolving needs and demands of customers.

Global Positioning System- Also popularly and abbreviatedly known as GPS, it is a satellite-based location services that allow a high degree of physical location precision. When combined with a mobile device's access to the vast set of internet data and services, hyperlocal takes on new dimensions. Realtime internet awareness of an individual's precise location in time allows people and entities to consume or deliver hyperlocal merchandise that is relevant to specific individuals at extremely small time scales. For example: E-grocery services such as Grofers uses this kind of GPS functionality to locate local stores where it has tie ups and give options to the customer to choose from it. It helps customers to find retailers in their nearby area and retailers to find the correct location of their customer.

Real time order tracking- Had it not been for the advancements in technology, hyperlocal delivery services would not have been so transparent. Real time order tracking feature helps the customers in tracking their placed order so that delivery is ensured to customer. In today’s world where customers are getting increasingly ravenous about knowing the journey of their ordered product, this feature comes in pretty handy for hyperlocal businesses to flaunt and get the most out of.

Online payment facilities and advanced payment gateways- Have you ever thought how would it feel to get stuck while making payments for your online order? It’s a bad experience to have. But a hyperlocal ecommerce delivery software that has PayPal, Stripe, etc., integrated into the software can be a bang for the buck as they really provide transactional ease and convenience. Businesses should ensure the availability of such advanced payment services and multiple payment gateway options to avoid any transactional bottlenecks. Moreover, what can be an add-on for a business is the acceptance of payments in cryptocurrencies through gateways like Coinbase, etc.

Advanced payment gateways ensure secured transactions and help in seamless exchange and purchase of goods. They are reliable, fast and secure so that customers do not get skeptical about their buying things online.

Route optimization through GPS- It is the process of finding the best and most cost-effective route for delivery drivers. Automated route optimization helps businesses to stay ahead by formulating delivery routes that are both time and cost-effective. So, a software that is GPS enabled and works on a satellite-based radionavigation system can surely help you optimize routes for your business. This feature has enabled businesses to become more effective in making instant on-demand deliveries.

Benefits associated with hyperlocal ecommerce

The hyperlocal ecommerce model provides a win-win situation for all by connecting local dealers, ecommerce companies and customers. There are tremendous benefits of a hyperlocal model. These benefits are infusing energy and life in businesses that are wishful of growing and exploring their limits.

Freedom from warehousing hassles- Hyperlocal ecommerce delivery partners provide retailers the freedom of not storing the merchandise and yet meeting customers’ needs just as successfully as possible. Yes! It just takes the order from the customer through intuitive mobile app, contact the specified dealer and deliver it to the respective customers. This makes it cost effective as there is no need to have a warehouse, bear the maintenance cost and thereby also making it flexible as there is no issue of space.

Instant delivery- The hyperlocal ecommerce model is one of the fastest in terms of delivery as it connects local retailers to its customers in an instant. Hyperlocal deliveries usually take 1-2 hours in reaching the consumers’ doorsteps whereas in other models it may take much longer for the products to reach the customers. For example- E-commerce giants like flipkart and Myntra also take at least one day to deliver the ordered products because they follow an inventory model where they have made warehouses which are few and not in the nearby areas of the customers. Conversely, the hyperlocal model by virtue of recognizing the geographically close retailers and customers, provide immense power and efficiency in the hands of hyperlocal businesses. It is the instant delivery benefit offered by leading hyperlocal businesses like blinkit, Doordash, etc that has given them immense popularity.

Increased customer trust- As the whole process is extremely local or in a close vicinity to the customers, they know where from the products he/she orders is coming from. This helps to gain the confidence and trust of the customer which in turn makes this model more trustworthy and hence popular. As and by the trust of customers in hyperlocal deliveries continues to grow, on-demand deliveries are becoming the order of the day.

Highly efficient- Hyperlocal ecommerce model is highly efficient. Just because it is speedy, it can cover much greater delivery milestones in less time thereby making itself do more in the saved time. This results in increased efficiency of businesses and retailers that team up with hyperlocal ecommerce delivery software partners and thus adopt the hyperlocal model. Moreover, there is already a sense of need of the market in particular areas which requires a lower degree of logistical collection and handling; and improved analysis makes it even more efficient.

Wrapping up

Hyperlocal ecommerce has been a saviour for several businesses. Though for some it has opened gateways for success and growth, for others, it has been a strong mean of survival. It would not be wrong to say that hyperlocal deliveries have been infusing energy and life into all sorts of businesses.

Be they restaurants, food outlets, grocery stores, electronic appliance showrooms, apparel manufacturers or retailers, home essentials and household service providers, the on-demand delivery model is receiving every form of attention and garnering accolades from the customers and businesses worldwide. Where on one hand, it is the most convenient mode of availing products and services, on the other hand, it is just bang for the buck for aspiring businesses.

Without it, the world of ecommerce deliveries may not be so quick, convenient, transparent and contactless.