Local Delivery: An Alternative to In-store Pickups That Can Drive Bookings

Local delivery is a great way to connect with new customers, drive bookings, and provide a better customer experience. With rules changing constantly and safety at the top of everyone’s mind, it makes sense to provide a contact-free alternative. By allowing customers to have their rental products delivered, you could reach more people.

This has been a breakout trend during the pandemic as support for small and local businesses has increased. With so many rental orders to deal with, it can often become difficult with just a brick-and-mortar store. So, many rental companies have resorted to local delivery. In addition, some rental businesses have been able to operate solely on local delivery with no actual store.

Let’s look at if local delivery is right for your rental business and how you can set it up to work for you. We’ll take you through what it is, how it can help your business and how you can develop the logistics to make it successful.

What is local delivery?

Essentially, local delivery allows your customer to rent a product online and have it delivered to their door. It is an excellent alternative to in-store pickup and can be easy to set up for your rental business. In addition, many people are still cautious about the effect of being in a store, so it provides safety to them and yourself. Finally, it helps you to provide a more personal service to your customers.

How can local deliveries help your rental business?

Local delivery can enable you to offer a more thoughtful rental experience for your customers and help generate more bookings. Let’s dive into how local deliveries can help you build a connection with customers, improve customer experience, and increase bookings.

Build a connection with customers

Making it easier for your local community and tourists to access your products helps to differentiate your rental business, which in turn will attract new customers. It’s a great way to connect with local customers, as well as those who are unfamiliar with the area. It can also help to boost your local economy as tourists are more likely to visit on vacation and return in the future.

Improve customer experience

By delivering directly to your customer’s door, their hotel, or an event they are hosting/attending, you can improve the customer experience. Not only does it allow for more flexibility when booking, but it also means you are accessible to more people. For example, a group of tourists could be chaotic if they all visit your store at once, but you can make the process much easier if you can deliver to their location.

Increase bookings

Local delivery gives your brand a more personal experience that customers will appreciate. If you can have a meaningful interaction with a customer one-on-one, they are more likely to come back to you in the future. You can also leverage this as a USP for attracting new customers as not many rental stores offer such an experience.

Working out the logistics of local delivery

You need to consider a few things when offering local delivery as an option for your customers. Firstly, you need to consider where you will deliver from. If you have one location, this can be easy, but you should consider which one is your best option if you have multiple.

It would help if you also considered who will be making the deliveries. Do you have enough staff to manage this yourself, or will you need to hire someone else to make deliveries?

In addition, how far are you willing to travel to deliver orders, and will you need to charge for it? For most companies, there won’t be an additional charge as customers are within cycling distance, but it might be something that needs to be considered for others.

Finally, it would be best if you determined how you will deliver orders. This can be done with a bike for smaller items, but for larger ones, you may need a specialized van to make local deliveries viable, which is a cost you need to consider when planning local delivery.