How to Track a Package Through USPS, UPS, FedEx, or Self-Delivery

You scoured the internet. You found the item you wanted. You typed in your info. You clicked purchase, and just like that you… have no idea what happens next until your package arrives.

More often than not, it isn’t the wait for a package that frustrates customers — it’s the lack of communication between the time of purchase and the receipt of their item.

For business owners, providing tracking can boost customer satisfaction and drive repeat sales. Thankfully, package tracking is easy. You just need the right tools, and we’ve compiled a concise list of precisely what those tools are below.

How to Track a Package

To track a package, you’ll first need to determine how your package is being shipped or delivered. Third-party couriers, such as UPS, DHL, and FedEx, provide their own tracking solutions, while businesses that manage delivery in-house need a software solution to be able to track packages.

Below, you’ll find specific tracking information for six major shipping companies. Plus, you can track a package right now via the link below each shipper as long as you have your parcel or package ID number. 

1. How to track a UPS package

To track a UPS package right now, click this link.

The majority of respondents in a 2018 survey said UPS offered the best package tracking features out of the most popular U.S. shipping companies. United Parcel Service, Inc.’s (UPS) user-friendly web search functions and UPS Mobile™ App make tracking packages fast and easy. 

If you have questions or run into issues, you can start a live chat with their Virtual Assistant right from the app.

2. How to track a USPS package

To track a USPS package right now, click this link.

Similar to UPS, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has their own mobile app. Once you create a USPS account, you can easily buy stamps, have your post office hold your mail, and calculate shipping costs in addition to tracking a package. USPS also offers a unique service called Informed Delivery® that sends customers images of letter-sized mail that is in the process of being shipped.

3. How to track a FedEx package

To track a FedEx package right now, click this link.

Federal Express (FedEx) is perhaps best known for their time-sensitive delivery services, such as FedEx International Urgent Delivery that promises to get your package on the very next flight out. Their mobile app is comparable to those of UPS and USPS, offering real-time order updates, and the FedEx website features a Virtual Assistant that can help answer tracking questions.

4. How to track a DHL package

To track a DHL package right now, click this link.

Like UPS and FedEx, DHL offers delivery in 220+ countries, which makes them a popular choice for international shipping and delivery. DHL offers a host of services and shipping options that cater specifically to eCommerce businesses. DHL does have their own mobile app, though it has a significantly lower user rating than its competitors, with two out of five stars in the Apple App Store.

5. How to track a China Post package

To track a China Post package right now, click this link.

The China Post is owned and operated by the Chinese government and partners with the government-run postal couriers of other countries when delivering internationally. For customers in the United States, this can often mean items shipped from China have both a China Post tracking number and a USPS tracking number.

6. How to track a Royal Mail package

To track a Royal Mail package right now, click this link.

Royal Mail has been around for more than half a millennium, but they went through a major shift in 2015 when they became completely privatized. Today, Royal Mail offers apps for both Android and iOS where consumers can track packages and schedule redelivery. Royal Mail also offers the option to have packages delivered to a neighbor if you’re not home when your parcel arrives.

Don’t see your shipping company listed here? Most couriers and shipping companies have a quick link to track a package on their website’s homepage. Additionally, Google now offers a package tracking feature that allows consumers to enter their tracking ID directly into the Google search bar and get updated tracking info from any courier enrolled in their program. Businesses that participate in this program show up in Google’s package tracking SERP feature when a customer enters their unique tracking ID number.

Customers Expect the Ability to Track Their Packages

Consumers expect to be able to track their purchased goods even when they’re ordering from small stores and restaurants. According to a study conducted by OSM Worldwide, “more than half (55 percent) of online shoppers expect order status updates to be current as of a few hours ago or even more timely, and 11 percent say up-to-the-minute reporting is a must.” 

Whether you’re a restaurant delivering hot food or a boutique delivering floral arrangements, a simple package tracking solution can improve your customers’ buying experience dramatically. Real-time delivery updates also keep consumers from repeatedly calling you to check on their delivery status, which — given that 40% of eCommerce shoppers admit to checking their purchase order status daily — can save you a lot of time.

This article originally appeared on optimoroute.com.

Latest Mobile App Development Trends

Mobile devices have emerged as one of the most essential features of modern living. We use them to order food, shop, ride share, and entertain. They play a crucial part in managing our tasks, keeping us informed, and communicating in all kinds of ways. Likewise, mobile development—creating new tools and capacities never before imagined—moves quickly.

More specifically, apps enable smartphones and tablets to take on new powers everyday as their progress never seems to stall. This makes staying up-to-date with the latest trends in mobile app development both difficult and necessary. Here, we outline some of the top trends in app development to keep you aware of the pace of the mobile landscape.

1. Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is experiencing a boom, and it’s certainly expected that it will take a critical role in shaping the future of mobile app and web app creation. Since many users of mobile technology are not chained to a single device, app developers are focused on bringing their data, documents, and capabilities to multiple devices at once through cloud synchronization.

2. App Security

Users are concerned with the safety of their devices and data as well as with safeguarding themselves from attackers and hackers. While an estimated 75% of mobile apps cannot pass basic security tests, attackers continue to exploit these applications. Developers are taking security concerns far more seriously than they have in the past to assure consumers of secure data storage, tight integration, and multi-factor authentication.

3. Wearable Tech

Wearable technologies are a hot topic in consumer electronics. Many of these developed devices have focused on fitness and health, but in the future they will also expand their use for efficiency, productivity, and mobile payment. The fashion industry is already exploring the adoption of wearable tech, and it’s encouraging that app development has again moved to synchronize with these devices seamlessly

4. Mobile Payments

It’s estimated that almost 20% of sales are completed on a smartphone or tablet. This growth is sure to continue as users adapt to mobile commerce, but the transfer of money using a mobile device has already become something of a standard requirement in customers lives. Application developers are therefore moving toward app design that processes payments without cash or card.

5. User Experience

As the usage of smartphones, tablets, and wearable tech increases day over day, the experience of the user grows in importance. That’s why data analytics of app usage are coming in to help developers position advertisements and process payments just right. Mobile app development can, then, no longer be so simply separated from analytics which results in more efficient improvements in user experience. Firms may even use machine learning or deep learning to mine these analytics for insights.

6. In-app Marketing

The spend of large enterprises on in-app advertising and marketing is expected to double many times over. These ads—no longer just banners and text—come in many formats. And, monetization means that these advertisements will continue to shift in form until a synthesis between user experience and effective ad spend is reached. (Social media is certainly a part of the story when it comes to changing advertising for mobile apps.)

7. User Engagement

It used to be the case that mobile app developers and marketers were focused solely on downloads to grab maximum attention. Instead, user engagement has taken the reigns, and now developers of mobile applications are realizing that each user engagement is useful. In particular, organic users (rather than paid channel users) show more engagement and loyalty, making developers change their tune toward paid channels.

8. HTML 5

As the technology of HTML 5 continues to shine, enterprises and developers are adopting a hybrid approach to the creation and maintenance of mobile apps. Rather than relying on native tools, the use of these hybrid frameworks allows developers to build apps and focus on multiple platforms and app stores at once, gaining a larger user base from the start. More and more developers and those wishing to create an app will pay attention to these hybrid technologies in the future of design and development.

Final Thoughts

Developers are shifting toward a future governed by user experience, mobile payment, and hybrid technologies that reach across platforms. Current and future app development will be in part tested by its ability to incorporate cloud computing, m-commerce, and mobile advertising into its arsenal. While you may not be able to include these trends into your current development alone, you can find the right team to implement them for you.

This article originally appeared on Makeen Technologies.

What Is Last Mile Delivery & How to Optimize It in 2020

What Is the Last Mile Delivery Problem?

Last mile delivery is the last step in moving your business’ product from your location (or delivery hub) to the customer’s location. The last mile delivery problem, then, is simply the fact that that last mile is usually the most expensive part of the process — often costing more than half of overall shipping costs.

What makes last mile delivery such a challenge?

Unlike with large-scale shipping and dissemination, you’re not sending a large number of products to a single location. 

Instead, your delivery drivers carry a large amount of smaller packages, each with unique destinations.

That is the essence of the last mile problem — more stops mean more complex routes, more idle time, and more time on the road. That means you have to maintain a larger fleet of delivery vehicles and drivers to ship a small number of products.

What businesses are affected by the last mile delivery problem?

By definition, last mile delivery is relevant for businesses that deliver products directly to their consumers.

These businesses include (but aren’t limited to):

• Couriers
• Third-party logistics companies
• Direct-to-consumer retail companies
• Food delivery companies
• Supermarkets offering delivery
• Department stores offering delivery
• Florists
• Restaurants offering delivery
• Pharmacies offering delivery
• Ecommerce

Even if your company collaborates with wholesalers or retailers in the supply chain of your product, you might have a website with an ecommerce store. 

That means you still have to handle shipping, including last mile delivery, for the orders that come in that way.

How Much Does Last Mile Delivery Cost?

It is by far the most expensive part of the fulfillment chain, costing an average of $10.1 per package delivered. On average, businesses charge the consumer $8.08 to cover these costs, taking the rest from the profit margins of sold products.

Here’s a snapshot from Statista from 2018 (the last time they released data):

Given the vast majority of deliveries are small packages, these numbers reflect small parcels rather than large cargo.

Final mile delivery for larger items, such as refrigerators, ovens, and other electric appliances, can cost up to $50 per package.

But even if you only handle smaller packages, handling last mile deliveries can be expensive, if you don’t have scale on your side. The average salary of a delivery driver is $15.69 per hour. You also need to factor in other costs like warehousing, fuel, and vehicle maintenance. 

If you’re taking a $2 hit (at minimum) from every delivery made, you can quickly feel the pain of the last mile delivery problem.

When considering these numbers, it’s clear that drivers need to average multiple deliveries per hour to keep your business growing.

Why is Last Mile Delivery so expensive?

Delivering thousands of packages to their final destination every day is a complex logistical challenge. Last mile fulfillment is complicated, and many factors contribute to the overall cost.

1. Lower average speeds = more time on the road, and fewer miles-per-gallon

When your drivers are delivering multiple packages to different locations around a city, they have to use local roads.

Smaller delivery trucks and vans average 6.5 miles per gallon (MPG) at a steady speed of 55 miles per hour. If you handle deliveries in urban areas, 55 mph is not a realistic average speed for your delivery fleet. How low it will drop depends on the local road and traffic situation.

The need to decelerate, stop, and accelerate at rapid intervals has a significant impact on both average speeds and fuel efficiency.

So not only do your drivers have to spend a lot more time on the road to cover the same distance, but it also costs you more in gas.

2. More stops lead to more idling and downtime

Driving and dropping off packages in the city leads to a lot more idling than other stages of shipping. With all the traffic lights, diverse vehicles on the road, and winding streets, it’s impossible to avoid.

On average, a delivery truck uses 0.84 gallons per hour when idling. Plus, you still have to pay your delivery drivers regardless of whether they are standing still or moving.

3.  Failed deliveries

When you are distributing goods to delivery hubs or supply chain partners, you don’t have to worry about failed deliveries.

When you are delivering products to the final customer, however, failed deliveries are a massive part of the equation.

A single failed delivery costs $17.78, on average, and an astounding 5% of all last mile deliveries fail. That’s why shipping accuracy is such an important thing to prioritize.

There are a number of reasons why this is such a big problem:

• The customer is not expecting a delivery (no prior notification).
• The customer is not home due to late delivery (inefficient planning or unexpected events).
• No options of delivery scheduling (no time windows).
• Mistaken address of the customer.

4. Complex routes lead to more out-of-route miles

With a large number of individual stops, it’s a lot easier for drivers to lose track of the route and rack up unnecessary miles.

Research shows that out-of-route miles can account for up to 10% of the total mileage of a delivery fleet.

5. Returns, refunds, or discounts

The average return rate of ecommerce products is a whopping 20%. If you sell consumer products online, you can expect at least one in five customers to send their purchased product back, either for a refund or for a different item (which you’ll have to deliver for free).

The Real Business Impact of the Last Mile Delivery Problem

If you don’t have an optimized process for last mile delivery, you’re setting your business up to fail in the long term.

You will face significantly higher operational costs, unhappy customers, and many other real business challenges.

Higher operating costs and lower profit margins

Higher rates of failed deliveries and unoptimized delivery routes and schedules lead to significantly higher operating costs.

When just a single failed delivery can cost your business over $17, it’s essential to optimize every step of your order fulfillment process, especially last mile delivery.

Poor customer experience and little brand loyalty

Last mile delivery plays a significant role in the customer satisfaction of anyone who buys a product online.

Customers expect to receive their products on time, in acceptable condition. If you fail to deliver on these expectations, you will alienate customers and suffer from low repeat purchase rates.

84% of shoppers are unlikely to buy from a company again after a bad last mile delivery experience, and 98.1% of consumers say delivery is important for brand loyalty.

Increasingly, consumers expect same-day delivery. And they don’t care how complex the delivery process needs to be to live up to that expectation. They just want the results.

More cancellations and returns

If a customer feels that you are taking too long to deliver the product they purchased, they are much more likely to cancel their order.

There is also a bigger chance that they will end up returning the product after having purchased an equivalent option at a brick and mortar store.

This article originally appeared on optimoroute.com

6 signs that the future of work is here today

gigster.com

A great overview by Gigster CEO Chris Keene on how the gig economy is transforming work in the enterprise by making it more customer-centric and high performance. Don’t miss the stories of companies actually doing this.”  Dion Hintchcliffe, Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research

As software continues to eat the world, companies must find ways to build more innovative teams. For these companies, The Future of Work is here today. How companies reshape the way they engage digital talent will have a huge impact on their ability to innovate. Here are six ways digital leaders are creating The Future of Work now.

1. Remote workers and work from home teams are the new normal

The best talent is not always located where you are. Even within a company, silos can prevent the right people from working on the most critical innovation projects. Making it possible for team members to work remotely is the only way to liberate talent across the company. This is also the only way to source critical skill gaps that are not available inside the company, like AI/ML engineers. Supporting distributed teams calls for adopting a common set of processes and collaboration tools, including Slack, Github and Jira.

2. Hybrid teams beat monoculture teams

Innovation requires a diverse mix of talent. The most innovative teams blend in-house employees who have industry context with expert global talent who have advanced technical skills. This is the opposite of the traditional systems integration model that outsources innovation. Hybrid teams also have the value of helping companies build in-house skills by working side by side with expert freelance talent. 

3. Elastic Staffing beats fixed staffing

Many companies adopt agile team processes but staff teams inefficiently — they follow a fixed staffing model that allocates each role as a full-time position for the duration of a project.  This is only half agile. Because it makes experimentation too expensive to try, and reduces employee mobility and satisfaction. Compare this to Elastic Staffing, which allocates resources based on the workload for each project phase. For example, developers can join a project after the detailed design is complete, and technical architects may only be needed part time. Elastic Staffing can reduce the total hours to deliver innovative products by over 50%. 

4. Employees want to be treated more like freelancers

Top employees want the freedom and flexibility to choose how they work and what they work on. This doesn’t have to require radical organizational changes. For example, applying the Google 20% rule, where workers can choose their own projects 20% of the time, can boost morale and build skills. This lets more senior employees peer review deliverables from other projects to reduce risk. It also helps more junior employees grow by being exposed to new business and technology challenges.

5. Freelancers want to be treated more like employees

Top freelancers want stability and work benefits without sacrificing their flexibility. Companies that learn how to work effectively with freelancers will have their pick of the best global talent. This includes setting up projects for success with distributed teams, incorporating advanced technologies, and providing predictability for freelancers that helps them  plan effectively. In California, laws like AB5 are beginning to mandate providing more benefits for freelance workers, and putting them more on par with the benefits that full-time employees receive.

6. Automated team and talent assessments are here

Technology will ultimately reshape jobs, but today, technology is reshaping talent ratings. Every collaborative tool – from Slack, to Jira, to Github – has open APIs that can automatically collect data about the productivity and quality of work being produced by people and teams. Tools like Pinpoint can collect this data. Applying analytics to this data enables the creation of “karma scores” by person and by team, to provide objective and trusted evaluation of skills.

Examples of The Future of Work today

A global telco created hybrid teams that mix in-house staff with top global experts to accelerate their machine learning and predictive analytics initiatives. They manage these distributed teams following Silicon Valley best practices and have been able to deliver new applications that leverage AI up to twice as fast as traditional in-house development teams.

One of the world’s largest digital agencies created an entirely new digital transformation business unit using hybrid teams that blend employees and global freelance talent. This approach enabled them to onboard over 100 engineers in less than six months, with minimal recruiting costs.

Summary

The Future of Work describes a cultural shift that companies must adopt to grow their innovation capacity. The pace of those changes is accelerating as more companies adopt new work from home rules that support remote workers. Companies that embrace a Silicon Valley-style culture of innovation can become more customer-centered, more able to tap new talent pools, and to dramatically reduce risk.

This article is originally posted on Gigster.com