According to Google Trends data, searches with the words “near me” have been on the rise since 2011. As we mentioned in our previous blog, today’s customers are all about speed – they live fast-paced lives, and even running errands is time-consuming for them. They want everything delivered to their doorstep. The hyperlocal delivery business model, in which online businesses cater to the needs of customers located in the same area as them, targets these customers.

Along with increasing customer satisfaction, the hyperlocal delivery business model also helps businesses to reduce costs – shipping and fuel costs are reduced due to reduced travel distances, and storage costs are reduced due to reduced storage requirements.

In our previous blog, we discussed the benefits of having a hyperlocal delivery business. In this blog, we have provided a step-by-step guide for you to start one:

Decide Which Products You Want To Deliver

This is the first, most important step in the process. If you already have one or more products you can start selling them or add more products to your catalogue. If you are not the manufacturer of your products, you will have to contact the manufacturer before you start selling the products. Perishable goods such as groceries, food, and medicines have a great scope in the hyperlocal market.

Determine Your Target Customer Base

Once you have decided what to sell, the next step is to determine who to sell it to. You have to decide how local you want your customer base to be – whether the customers will be located in a particular neighbourhood, a particular state, etc. Also decide the demographics of your target customers – their age, occupation, gender, etc.

Design A Mobile App

This is not a mandatory step if you already have a website, but it is an important one that can take your business places. Mobile apps have become a part of our daily routine – there is an app for everything today. People want convenience in every aspect of their lives, and mobile apps offer them that. Apps are easy and free to install and use, and can work even without an internet connection.

Design your app to work on all operating systems and mobile devices. Make sure that your customers can get where they want to go with the least clicks. Make the app easy to navigate – customers should be able to check product categories, place orders, and make payments quickly. Provide multiple payment options to reach a wide customer base. Give product categories simple names so that they are easy for customers to understand. If customers cannot find the products they are looking for, they can get frustrated and leave your app without exploring it, causing financial and reputational loss to you.

Create a separate app for your delivery personnel. Create an order management dashboard to keep track of your current and upcoming orders in real time. This will help you to monitor the traffic and weather conditions in every location and suggest delivery personnel the quickest routes to their destination accordingly. You can also use this information to let your customers know the estimated time of their order’s arrival.

Create A Marketing Strategy For The App

Creating good content and design for your app and publishing it on app stores is not enough to get it noticed. The market for apps is highly competitive with millions of apps being available across operating systems today. Apple’s app store has close to five million apps and the Google Play store has about three million. The prospect of standing out in such a large market may seem daunting, but a good marketing strategy can give you a competitive edge. You can create the strategy yourself or hire a marketing manager/agency to do it for you.

Tie Up With Local Delivery Agents

If you don’t wish to hire delivery personnel, you can choose to hire merchants from local stores or tie up with a delivery agency. Delivery agents play a crucial part in a hyperlocal delivery business as they are responsible for picking products up from sellers and delivering them to customers. The network of the delivery partner you choose must be strong to ensure timely deliveries and customer satisfaction.