The step-by-step guide to launching your D2C delivery business

FMCG and retail brands are succeeding in cutting out the middleman and going straight to the consumer. This often means using third-party delivery platforms for home delivery or running your own delivery service via a virtual store, storefront, or subscription model. 

Whichever path you choose to get your fast-moving consumer goods into your ideal customers’ hands even faster, adding a new channel can be daunting. 

Fortunately, we’re on hand to provide you with the essential tools, tips, and techniques for a successful launch. 

From researching your ideal online customer and choosing your business model and fulfillment method to marketing and launching your new channel, here are the seven steps to FMCG D2C success.

Launching your FMCG direct-to-consumer (D2C) channel: 7 steps to success

1. Identify your ideal customer

The first step is to examine what’s already working for you and utilize that information to research your ideal delivery customer. Analyze your existing customer base from your email lists, customer database, or other data sources. What are the patterns and main demographics? Try to get inside their heads and think about how to give them the most frictionless customer experience.

If you’re operating from a physical location, research the surrounding area of your warehouse or store. Look at how many customers you could reach and determine if the demographic fits your current best customers and whether the area could sustain your store.

Look at the competition. Are there similar products on offer? What are they doing well? What can you do better to give the customer more convenience?

From your findings, identify your niche, the ideal online customer base you want to target, and which products will be your core offering. Armed with this information, you can start to consider the practical elements of your business.

2. Choose your delivery fulfillment method

Next, consider how you will get your products to your customers. The two main options are to use third-party ordering and delivery partners or take delivery in-house, often with the help of a fulfillment partner. 

Third parties take the entire ordering and delivery process off your hands but charge a fee, while delivery fulfillment partners provide you with the tools and support to operate your own delivery service.

There are pros and cons associated with both methods so the decision will depend on your research from step one. For example, given the demographic of your ideal customer, where are they most likely to look for stores like yours.

Do they use third-party apps, or are they more likely to search online and find you directly? 

It’s worth considering the details carefully, but it boils down to how much control and margin you will give up in exchange for the convenience and exposure of being on third-party delivery platforms. 

In addition, you can offer click-and-collect, giving customers the option to order online and collect items at their convenience. This would necessitate some kind of storefront or collection area in your physical location.

Once you’ve figured out this tricky conundrum, choose your partners and sign up.

3. Automate your order flow

The next step is to decide how you will receive and manage orders. Again, you want maximum convenience and minimum friction for customers, and your ordering process should be a highly efficient machine that maximizes order flow. 

Whether you are taking orders from a third-party ordering and delivery platform, your own white-label app hosted on another platform, or directly via other channels, it’s best to have a system that can aggregate all your orders. This way, you can manage them in one place, avoid tablet hell, and have accurate data to improve your business later.

Choose tech solutions to maximize efficiency. Does your provider integrate well with your existing systems? For example, can it push orders automatically to your POS system or ERP system? Are you able to build a holistic system from scratch? 

Implement and test your order flow system and move on to the menu.

4. Optimize your menu

FMCG and retail brands tend to have huge menus. If you must list thousands of products, menu management is an important business component. If creating menus, adding products, and/or changing details is not done efficiently, it could hamper your ability to scale the business. 

Getting the right balance and logical user flow to your menu is critical in maximizing average order value and satisfying customers. Consider your pricing and whether it’s worth adding special offers to entice new customers, foster loyalty, and boost repeat business.

Since customers cannot touch and pick up items in a virtual store, giving them as much information as possible on the ordering menu is best. Using clear, attractive photos on a consistent background for your products is important. 

Deliverect’s menu builder is designed to help you quickly create attractive menus with a logical flow. The menu management tools mean you can build one menu and push it out to all your delivery or ordering platforms at the click of a button. Any changes can be managed from one dashboard rather than by contacting each partner individually.

5. Streamline operations

Whether starting from scratch or adding a delivery channel to your operations, you may need to hire more staff to ensure your system is not overloaded with orders. If you have the right tech in place, you can move resources from the order management side to checking orders and maintaining a high quality of service.

You may need staff in new areas, such as shoppers, packers, and managers overseeing the hand-off to drivers. For example, you might have a liaison responsible for communicating with drivers and ensuring orders are ready as they arrive. Ensure everyone knows who is responsible for what and who’s checking for mistakes.

Another way to improve efficiency is to create a dedicated packing and driver waiting area. It keeps drivers happy and can improve the order flow and speed of service.

6. Market your new channel

The final push is to market your new channel. After all, If you don’t tell your customers you’re opening a delivery channel, they won’t know to order! 

The methods you choose will depend on your brand and your customer base. You can either pay for advertising or use your existing channels to spread the word, such as adding a pop-up box to your website, launching a social media campaign, or sending a promotion to your email list.

Many brands use social media campaigns to attract customers. Get your loyal supporters involved by asking for testimonials or their best photos or even running a competition. You can also offer special discounts for delivery customers on the delivery platform apps. 

If you want to go traditional, you can drop flyers in letterboxes in the delivery area or place an ad in the local newspaper with a discount code. 

Pay-per-click ads on search engines are another way to grab new customers. You can target keywords specific to your customers – for example, grocery delivery downtown – and only pay when a customer clicks through to your menu.

If you're paying for exposure, be mindful of the return on investment. Margins are tight, and you don’t want to lose money on each order. 

7. The big launch

Now is the time to send your baby out and see what works in the real world. As orders start to come in, the key is to always look at what is working and what is not. Optimize, streamline, re-engineer, and upgrade constantly. Do whatever you need to make it more efficient until you run a well-oiled machine.

Robust reporting tools are your friend, showing you the real numbers so you can make business-critical decisions. Deliverect builds the relevant reporting tools into the system using all the data collected as your orders come in. You can access all your data from one dashboard and generate reports at the click of a button.

Launch your D2C channel with the potential to scale

Congratulations on your new revenue stream. After a successful launch, you may consider scaling up and adding delivery in more locations. 

Getting the right tech in place is key to ensuring a flawless customer experience and efficient operations. 

That means that as you grow, you will have fewer issues. You have the tools in place to cope with increasing orders without sacrificing your quality of service.