Saturday delivery: why you should offer it to your customers

Have you ever considered Saturday delivery? It could be an excellent option to satisfy the increasing number of requests from your customers. 

Perhaps you are among the merchants who benefited from the closure of physical stores during lockdown. In fact, in the months of March and April, many people turned to an e–commerce for the first time.  

Not only large retailers or basic necessities. Whole sectors experienced an increase in sales. Suddenly, a large part of Italians discovered the advantages of online shopping.

If e–commerce was already taking off before the lockdown, it is likely that there will be a real boom now. And you have to be ready!

What does it mean? Offering a  quality shopping and after-sales experience. And this does not only imply a delivery without unexpected events, but also as fast as possible.

Nowadays carriers offer a wide range of possibilities that meet the needs of merchants and the requests of customers: 24 h delivery, cash on delivery, shipments constantly tracked and for some of them even deliveries on Saturdays. 

Read on to find out the advantages and disadvantages of Saturday delivery, which carriers offer it and learn how to integrate this service into your e–commerce thanks to ShippyPro.

Are you ready? Let’s begin!

What does Saturday delivery mean for you and your customers?

First of all, it must be said that Saturday delivery is subject to certain conditions. It is not provided by all carriers, and not for all destinations. Furthermore, it costs much more than other services. 

In short, it is not yet as widespread as other common additional solutions (for example, cash on delivery) and before offering it to your customers you need to know it better. 

Saturday delivery will certainly become increasingly popular. After all, your customers could be very busy and work all week, without a moment’s rest. At that point, they would probably not have time to collect their much desired item during a midweek day. 

Moreover, by “spreading” deliveries over 6 days instead of 5, the carriers themselves can better manage the amount of packages that pass through their warehouses.

This could be a heavy commitment for you, of course, but it allows you to provide a very efficient service, able to retain customers. 

Start by evaluating who offers delivery on Saturday. Besides, not all carriers deliver on Saturday outside the big cities: another important aspect to consider. 

In addition, if you want to propose Saturday delivery, remember to integrate this option in your e–commerce in an easy way, only for the carriers that offer it. As we will see at the end of the article, ShippyPro will help you from this point of view. 

Now, instead, it’s time to understand where a growing trend like Saturday delivery started.

Saturday delivery in the USA 

If the delivery on Saturday begins to take its first steps in Italy, we owe it to some countries that have been leading the way, such as the United States. 

In USA this solution responds to frenetic rhythms of life, guaranteeing objects of any type delivered in the shortest time possible, even on Saturdays. If you are curious to find out where delivery on Saturday is spreading more and more widely, take a look here. 

According to the results of a research dating back to 2018, 99% of American consumers consider fast delivery important while buying online.  Moreover, 74% are more likely to buy again from merchants who make shipping speed a strength. 

Finally, another figure that encourages to offer delivery on Saturdays is the high percentage of buyers willing to pay extra to receive their package very quickly: 47% of Americans. 

At this point, given the importance of a service like this, you may be wondering who to turn to. 

We’ve already said that only some carriers offer Saturday delivery. Let’s see which ones, comparing their conditions and prices. 

Which carriers offer Saturday delivery?

Not all carriers provide Saturday delivery service. We decided to examine 4 among those that offer it: Amazon, Ups, FedEx and DHL. In the following tables you can see how they relate to merchants as regards cost and conditions:

The 3 advantages of Saturday delivery option

After analyzing some of the carriers you can rely on if you want to spoil your customers and allow them to receive their orders even on Saturdays, we can focus on the 3 advantages of a service intended to modify Italian e–commerce:

1. Ability to attract customers looking for this specific service. Customers are more and more demanding, but for some of them delivery on Saturdays may represent the only possibility of receiving products purchased online. Ensuring it would bring a large number of new customers. People who would not buy from you otherwise.
2. Demonstration of great professionalism and attention to the customer. The data listed above, even if they refer to the American market, are very clear: people appreciate merchants that deliver in a very short time.  Amazon owes much of its success to the ability  to ring the doorbell of its customers faster and faster. In this way it (almost) cancels the pleasure of buying in a physical store and taking home the new item. Your goal is certainly not to compete with Amazon’s efficiency, but to make sure that your business, small or big, is professional and puts itself into customers’ shoes. And in order to do that, you need to fulfill the desire for very quick purchases. 
3. Ability to differentiate from competitors. Not so many Italian e–commerce companies offer delivery on Saturdays for the moment. So why not differentiate your business from the competition, and plan a marketing strategy to communicate your added value?

The advantages of Saturday delivery are truly remarkable and can help you make a qualitative leap, but what about the disadvantages? Which ones are they? We have analyzed 3, keep reading to discover them! 

The 3 disadvantages of Saturday delivery option 

There are many factors when it comes to Saturday delivery. If the 3 advantages put you in a good mood, let’s find out now the 3 disadvantages that could make you doubt: 

1. Cost. Delivery on Saturday is very expensive. And you can only partially charge to your customers these costs. You must therefore carefully consider whether it is worth or not to offer a service that can guarantee an increase in sales, but that could be expensive. 
2. Need to ship large quantities of orders to meet carriers’ conditions. It is not enough to deliver a few orders on Saturdays, perhaps for a very low overall volume. Your e–commerce must sell a lot in order to to fall under the conditions imposed by some carriers for this service. 
3. Direct agreements with carriers. If you are a seller with a small e–commerce you will probably have to submit to unfavorable contractual conditions. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the benefits of Saturday delivery.

The pros and cons are now clear. You know that Saturday delivery is expensive. But also that integrating it into your e–commerce would give you great advantages.You are therefore determined to deploy all your resources for this new service. But how can you do it concretely? How can you add Saturday delivery among your shipping services?

Enjoy the benefits of Saturday delivery thanks to ShippyPro

ShippyPro is the answer to your doubts about Saturday deliveries. Thanks to this software you can manage your shipments from a single interface and you can connect over 120 carriers and 63 sales channels. 

If you want to deliver on Saturday with Amazon, FedEx, Ups or DHL you know where to start. With ShippyPro you can integrate Saturday delivery into the backend of your e–commerce and insert it as an option during purchase. 

Get ready for the e–commerce boom and offer an increasingly popular service that will make you loved by old and new customers. Integrate Saturday delivery into your e–commerce thanks to ShippyPro.