How to Make Grocery Delivery Faster With Route Planner

In 2024, online grocery stores are set up for success. Online grocery shopping sales are forecasted to grow with more and more customers getting accustomed to ordering groceries online. This is a great time to start a grocery delivery business or work on improving an existing operation. And thanks to grocery delivery driver apps, that’s easy to do.

Read along to discover how a grocery delivery app can help your business fulfill more orders faster and improve resource allocation to boost efficiency.

Online Grocery Market 2024 Trends

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of online shopping – including online grocery shopping.

According to Savemycent.com, 70% of US consumers are expected to choose online grocery shopping to the detriment of brick-and-mortar stores this year. In contrast, in 2018, only 48% of shoppers ordered their groceries online.

Following the same growing tendency, in 2021, online groceries are forecasted to reach $93.83 billion, compared to $89.2 billion in 2020. Moreover, online grocery sales are expected to increase by 149% before 2024.

How are you planning to meet the increasing demand?

How to Increase Grocery Delivery Efficiency With a Route Planner

With such a promising outlook on the future of online grocery shopping, you have to seek ways to make a giant leap forward and gain a competitive edge over your industry peers. Not only that, but you also have to make sure that your current fleet capacity is able to handle the increasing demand.

How?

With cutting edge route planning and optimization technology, delivery management, fleet management, driver tracking, and a capable navigation app. Route4Me can offer you all that and more. On that note, here’s how you can future-proof your grocery delivery business with Route4Me route optimization software in 6 easy steps:

1. Optimize Grocery Delivery Routes

To make grocery delivery more efficient, you have to start with your routes. The Route4Me route planner will help you go from long, expensive, back-and-forth routes to the most cost-efficient and time-effective routes in seconds.

Moreover, the Route4Me Route Planner integrates with multiple eCommerce platforms and customer data management systems so you can easily route your incoming online orders with just a few clicks.

To create optimized grocery delivery routes, you can import addresses and sync orders from:

• Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, BigCommerce
• Spreadsheets
• Google Drive
• Cloud Storage
• Box.net, Dropbox
• Zoho, HubSpot
• And more!

2. Use Navigation App With Real-Time Traffic Insights

Next, get your drivers to install the iOS or Android Route4Me grocery delivery driver app on their phones. By doing so, you’ll help drivers complete their tasks faster and safer by enabling them to follow voice-guided, turn-by-turn driving directions.

Moreover, the built-in GPS navigation accounts for real-time traffic conditions and will minimize the chance of getting stuck in traffic gems for hours. This will help you prevent prolonged idling, save money on fuel, and deliver fresh groceries faster.

3. Switch to Paperless Proof of Delivery

To help your drivers save even more time, you have to forget about proof of delivery (POD) paper slips. Those will only get in the way and will only be another thing to worry about. Instead, transition to electronic paperless POD.

With the Route4Me grocery delivery driver app, your drivers can capture proof of delivery in numerous formats – from images, video recordings, and sound recordings to e-signatures and text notes.

ePOD will help you quickly and safely store and file all the collected POD files in the cloud: no more lost slips, no more unsolvable disputes with the customer over presumably unfulfilled grocery orders.

4. Track Grocery Delivery Drivers and Prevent Route Detours

As your drivers service route stops and collect POD, you can track their progress in near real-time on a live map. Route4Me allows you to track individual drivers or the entire delivery team at once. However, if you can’t keep an eye on the action as it unfolds, you can always watch the GPS tracking video.

5. Enable Real-Time Communication With Your Drivers

Let’s face it: some events are unpredictable, and route adjustments are inevitable. That’s why the Route4Me route planner helps grocery delivery service providers automatically sync any route edits with drivers’ route planner apps. Furthermore, you can notify your drivers about any unexpected changes throughout a workday by using Route4Me’s real-time Activity Feed chat.

6. Analyze and Compare Grocery Delivery Metrics

Finally, you get to sit back and check the results of your efforts. On the Route4Me dashboard, you can assess and compare comprehensible reports with routing metrics and logistics KPIs that will give you full visibility into your entire grocery delivery operation’s efficiency. The reports include:

• Planned vs. actual route distance
• Planned vs. visited stops
• Planned vs. actual route time
• Total number of planned routes
• Total number of collected ePOD files
• And more!

Eager to be one step ahead of the competition? Start your Route4Me 7-Day Free trial right now.

Grocery and Meal Delivery With Route4Me

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Route4Me offered free service to all government establishments and non-profit organizations across the world to help them make better use of resources and reach out to as many vulnerable people as possible.

“We have proprietary and patented technology, which can significantly increase work efficiency, and help achieve a 300% improvement on most work activities, without adding additional people or staff,” explains Founder and CEO, Dan Khasis.

ENYP and Sunrise Cafe New Haven are among the many non-profit organizations that reached out to Route4Me amid the pandemic.

ENYP – EQUIPPING | NURTURING | YOUNG PEOPLE, a Charity running the ‘Picnic Project’ that focuses on providing fresh food to underprivileged individuals and families in the Greater Norwich area, Connecticut, registered an increase of 357% in meal delivery requests. Thanks to Route4Me, ENYP managed to satisfy that demand with the same number of resources, staff, and vehicles.

“We increased our deliveries by 357% in the first six weeks of the COVID-19 outbreak, the app has been invaluable in coordinating these on the ground.”
— Lucie Fox, Funding & Finance Officer at ENYP

Sunrise Cafe New Haven, a member of the Coordinated Food Assistance Network, provides non-perishable meals to about 2,000 low-income families in and around New Haven, CT. Amid the pandemic, Sunrise Cafe had to increase deliveries from 20 families to over 2,000. Route4Me helped them adapt to the new reality fast by planning and optimizing routes for over 300 volunteer drivers. By doing so, Sunrise Cafe managed to service more people and save substantial amounts of money and time.

“The product functionality is exactly what is needed, the ease of use is terrific and support is superb. The Route4Me team was extremely helpful. They answered all of my questions professionally and patiently. It is amazing what we have accomplished together. Thank you for being a terrific partner.” — Arthur Hunt, Administrator at Sunrise Cafe New Haven

Thinking of giving Route4Me a try? Sign up for a 7-Day Free trial today – NO credit card required.