How to Start a Delivery Business — The Most Profitable Business to Start in 2020

1. Essential Features of any Delivery Business
   1. Potential Customers for Delivery Business
   2. Delivery Methods
2. Courier Service Staff
   1. How many couriers do you need?
3. How to Work on Marketing and SEO Promotion
4. Essential eCommerce Features of Delivery Business Websites
5. How to Start a Package Delivery Business on WordPress
6. Online Store Setup Service
7. How to Choose a Template
8. Online Store Themes for Inspiration

Recently, services for the delivery of anything have become increasingly popular. The main feature of this business is efficiency and customer focus. As you know, time is money.

It seems people are willing to pay for any service. They already pay Postmates and Uber Eats to deliver food to their homes and workplaces. Booster Fuels refuel your cars where they stand. Also, people can get everything from grocery to electronics to their doorstep in two hours with the development of services such as Amazon Prime now. The concept is already well established. All you have to do is decide what you would like to deliver.

Courier service is a business without serious investments and requirements, so anyone can start it. The advantages of this sphere are high demand for services, a wide range of customers and profitability of up to 90%.

Delivery service is the best service business to start for both an experienced and novice entrepreneurs. Digital ordering and delivery grew 300% faster than dine-in traffic since 2014. The idea is attractive in that it does not require large investments and at the same time guarantees a sufficiently high profit. You can start with a minimal set of resources and gradually develop your business. Moreover, with the growth of e-commerce, delivery services are more relevant than ever. That's why opening a courier agency is a great solution for an entrepreneur.

But this business, like any other, has its nuances and pitfalls. Before you throw all your energy and money into starting a business, you need to study the main aspects of this type of activity.

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Essential Features of any Delivery Business

A courier agency provides us with services for prompt delivery of letters, documents, small and bulky goods for a fee. Depending on the scale of activity, the courier service can deliver between countries, between cities and regions, within the same city. Another important criterion — the specifics of the cargo. Conventionally, the work of city courier services is divided into the delivery of correspondence and goods. In practice, most players specialize in both directions.

The types of services that a courier service provides may vary. The most demanded delivery of goods from online stores. Most often it is a small-sized cargo.

What options do courier services offer their customers:

• pre-order;
• rush order (during the day);
• courier rental;
• shipping insurance;
• order at night - delivery of goods from 22:00 to 7:00;
• lifting goods to the floor.

To determine what you want to deliver, study the demand in your city.

1. What is missing in the courier market?
2. Which niche is free?
3. What can be improved in this area?
4. What problems do your future customers face?

When you answer all these questions, you can choose a promising direction.

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Potential Customers for Delivery Business

Online stores. Today, almost all online stores cooperate with courier services and use their outsourcing services. Moreover, many prefer to conclude contracts with local small firms.

Cafes and restaurants. This is also a major segment. Almost all catering establishments provide delivery service to their customers. And this is also done by third-party city courier services.

Flower shops. Many of them trade through social networks and offer delivery services. But it is not profitable for them to keep their courier on staff, therefore they resort to outsourcing.

Corporations. Almost all large companies need couriers to deliver various documents. In addition, there is such a service as “courier rental”. It means an employee can not only deliver documents but also perform additional tasks. For example, wait in a line at the tax office and hand over/pick up documents. Thanks to this service, the client saves time, and you get additional profit.

So, the circle of potential customers of the delivery service includes an unlimited number of private and legal entities.

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Delivery Methods

Now you need to understand how to deliver it. The delivery method depends on the specifics of the order, and the territory, and your strategy. Let's consider in more detail with examples of courier services.

• Courier pedestrian. If you work within a small village, you can do it with a pedestrian courier. The method recalls the classic image of the postman. You can also use bicycles, mopeds, scooters. It is clear that only correspondence and small packages will be delivered in this way. Thus, it may not be a very good solution.
• Courier with a car. Firstly, the volume of initial investments will increase. You will need to buy a car or hire a courier with a car (an extra charge). Secondly, fuel costs will increase. But you will get a quick delivery method, more orders and the ability to deliver bulky and heavy parcels. Besides, you can use unusual delivery formats. This will stand out and create competitive advantages.
• Bicycle mail. This example of courier service specializes usually on the delivery of documents in small vehicles (bicycles, scooters, mopeds). It’s cheap, environmentally friendly, and in the case of traffic jams even faster. For example, the American express mail UPS delivers packages on bicycles. You can hire students to work. One problem — it is not very convenient to ride a bike in rain or snow. But this method of delivery can be made as an additional service while its warm outside.
• Congratulatory courier service delivers flowers, balloons, gifts, and other holiday symbols. The services help people who cannot personally congratulate relatives. Courier service does this for them. With competent advertising, the service will become popular. Moreover, the bright design of the courier car will be an excellent marketing move.
• 24-hour delivery. Not every courier startup provides such services. Therefore, you can occupy a free niche and start with less competition. Delivery at night has pros and cons: + a tariff for such orders is higher; + fast delivery (traffic jams are less); - you have to hire additional staff for night shifts.
• Delivery of auto parts, building materials, assistance with moving. There are very few companies that provide such services, but there is demand. The car broke down on the road, it is necessary to transport things or building materials for construction or repair. In all these cases, they will need your courier service. But then you have to buy trucks and hire movers.

As you can see, the delivery service is a very varied business. You can combine features in different ways: type of cargo, target audience, delivery method, etc. Find your "formula” that will turn out to be successful for you.

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Courier Service Staff

An entrepreneur can open a courier business on his own. It is quite possible to combine the functions of a dispatcher, town courier, and director. At the initial stage, when there will be few orders, you can handle it alone. This will help save on salaries for employees. But then helpers will still be required. By the way, replacing the entire staff of the courier service is a very useful experience. You will feel the business “from within”, understand the process of work, learn the nuances and then you can better navigate the business.

The staff of the courier service usually includes:

• Managers;
• Courier drivers;
• Pedestrian couriers (you can hire students for it);
• An accountant;
• Movers (if you plan to deliver bulky goods)

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How many couriers do you need?

It depends on your business plan, location, and growth rate. It is necessary to calculate:

• how many orders one town courier can fulfill;
• how much distance he covers;
• and how much time he spends on moving from one point to another.

For instance, in the restaurant business delivery is carried out by foot or bicycle at the center, and on the outskirts by car.

To begin with, 2 couriers per shift are enough for you. On average, they will be able to serve up to 5 clients per hour, if we consider the range of 20-30 minutes per client.

When there will be more orders and your customer base will increase significantly, you can expand the staff further. To track the work of couriers you will need smartphones or tablets with installed applications. You can do it without them, but it will be very difficult to control the work only via phone calls if there are more than 5 couriers.

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How to Work on Marketing and SEO Promotion

The next step is to find out how to attract attention of potential clients. I have listed online and offline methods. Also, you can find tips for advertising on your website there.

1. Printable advertisement. Use booklets, business cards, flyers. Make leaflets with a description of your services and a great deal. Arrange to place them on stands near cash desks in stores, in organizations, on bulletin boards.
2. Ads sites. Place announcements of your services on various eBay-type resources. There you can study the demand for courier services and respond to the application.
3. Participation in tenders. For example, you can apply for government tenders. Just find the relevant ones for your business. It all depends on the capabilities of your courier service. To get acquainted with suitable options, select the region in which you plan to work, read the terms of current offers, make sure that you meet the stated requirements and submit an application.
4. Electronic reference books. If your activity is limited to the territory of one region or city, then electronic directories can be used. Find the phone numbers and emails of those companies that are your target audience. Call or send an electronic offer of cooperation. Try to make a commercial proposal that reflects the individual needs of a business.
5. Instagram promotion. Create your account, buy advertising at bloggers, make giveaways, give one-day discounts to subscribers, etc.
6. Create a loyalty program with a bonus system. The main goal is to stimulate ordering more often and for a larger amount. For example, each client who made the first order automatically becomes a member and begins to accumulate points, at the first level 5% of the order amount.
7. Analysis of the effectiveness of sales channels. The easiest way to measure performance is to instruct operators to ask customers how they found out about you. Use Google Analytics on the site.
8. SEO optimization of the website. If this topic is new to you, I can suggest you read the SEO guide.
9. Google AdWords. This is the most effective method of advertising on the Internet. It’s crucial to set up an advertising campaign Google AdWords correctly. Hire professionals, do not waste your time and do not trust amateurs. Cost optimization and new orders will quickly pay back the investment.
10. Discount services. If it’s very difficult for you with orders, you can accommodate websites like Groupon. You will not earn much, but at least it will give you some work. It is important to consider a couple of points:

• The main audience of these services is freebie lovers. So, you should not expect that many of them, having used your services, will become regular customers.
• Give discounts only for more expensive services.

As you can see, there are many channels for promoting city courier services. First, use all available advertising methods. Plan marketing expenses right away to receive orders from the first month of work.

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Essential eCommerce Features of Delivery Business Websites

Nowadays, there is no successful business without a website. A classic eCommerce website for the delivery business should be user--friendly and modern. Also, it must load fast, because the longer a website page loads, the more clients you may lose.

As for the features, your website should have wide functionality for organizing a full cycle of ordering and delivery such as:

• Fully responsive design;
• Adaptation to all mobile devices;
• Delivery Modes (Standard Delivery and preorders by time);
• Multilingualism;
• Newsletter subscription;
• Chat support;
• Order status tracking;
• Calculation of the exact time of receipt of the order;
• Courier tracking on the map (optional);
• Payment Methods (Payment by card online, Apple pay, Google pay, cash by receiving);
• SEO Optimization;
• Google Map;
• Flexible adjustment of promotions and discounts;
• Generate and track promotional codes;
• Push mailing to customers in mobile applications;
• Integration with Google Analytics and Google Adwords.

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How to Start a Package Delivery Business on WordPress

Before you begin creating a delivery service website, I would recommend running a quick check on the essential steps according to the business startup checklist.

Don’t neglect to go on clickable links in the text. There is a lot of useful information that will help you step-by-step to do it by yourself.

Well, to create a website, you need:

1. Get a Domain name. According to your future companies name you need to register a domain;
2. Pick a hosting provider. Here is a list of the best hosting providers.
3. Install WordPress CMS. It is free and very easy.
4. Find a perfect-matching delivery service WordPress theme and install it to WordPress. I would recommend picking one of the WooCommerce themes because the key to eCommerce in WordPress is a free WooCommerce plugin.
5. Import demo content on your website. Finding a WordPress theme with ready-to-use content can save you a lot of time and imagination.
6. Edit sample content. This step is very important. Though you can leave images and some pieces of text from demo content. But here it is very important for you to add your contact info, tell about your services and so on.

The more detailed step-by-step tutorial you can read at the utmost Elementor WooCommerce guide.

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Online Store Setup Service

I understand that creating an online store website can be a challenging task. If it is too difficult for you, don’t be upset. I have a solution for you — Online Store Setup Service. It is the ultimate service to get your web store online hassle-free.

Why is it worth your attention?

• It is much cheaper than hiring many specialists (Web designer, Programmer, Content manager, SEO specialist, etc.)
• Quick work. They can create a ready website within 24 hours.
• Suits for many platforms. They can help with WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento, Prestashop, OpenCart.
• 4 packages to choose from. You pay for an online store setup according to your needs and budget.
• All essential tools. With the cheapest package, you can receive necessary features for a courier startup.
• Additional services. For an affordable price, you can pick many services from SEO optimization to content writing.

In a nutshell, this service is very popular and has lots of positive feedback. So, they can be trusted.

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How to Choose a Template

When choosing a template, you should not rush and install the first one you find. Consider a number of features. Not all templates are good in their characteristics, some may cause problems in the future. It is better to immediately weigh all the advantages and disadvantages of 7-10 templates and choose the most suitable one.

The important parameters that are worth paying attention to:

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Design Features

The color scheme and design style should correspond to your preferences and the chosen type of online store. Choose a flexible template that allows you to change visual elements, colors, and fonts. So, you can customize the template for yourself.

Pick a WordPress theme with demo content. This is very convenient for clarity, and in the future, you can replace the test content with your own.

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Usability and interface

Ease of use is extremely important for a commercial project. No one will place orders in a beautiful, but uncomfortable store.

When choosing a template, evaluate how well thought out all the details that affect the interaction of the audience with the site. We are talking about an interactive basket, the Up button and switching languages, and a good navigation system. Buyers should easily find the right product and information, make a purchase.

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Functionality

Look for a template with the features you need. It is payment and shipping methods. This can be also a blog, a custom sidebar and advanced sorting of goods. Modern templates offer many standard forms, widgets, sticky headers and mega menus.

Of the tools to stimulate sales are useful: quick product review, product comparison, countdown timer, wish list and pop-ups.

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Page download speed

This is an important parameter that is taken into account by search engines in the ranking. The site should load in 2 seconds and faster.

You can evaluate the download speed of the template in the demo version according to your own feelings or use the Google PageSpeed ​​service.

Please note: if you plan to add a large number of plugins and scripts to the online store, the download speed will decrease significantly.

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Adaptability

According to Statista, the share of mobile users in 2019 is 63.5%. So, you need to choose a template with a mobile version or an adaptive theme that automatically adjusts to the screen size. So, you will not only attract the maximum number of potential customers to your resource but also improve your position in search engines.

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Updates and Support

The availability of technical support will allow you to quickly solve any problem. In addition, the template should be updated regularly. Otherwise, after some time it will no longer correspond to the new version of WordPress, and your web project will stop working correctly.

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Translation-ready

If you plan to work in several countries, choose a theme that supports multiple languages.

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Online Store Themes for Inspiration

To save your time I have found the top 8 most different and ready for a delivery business WordPress themes. All of them have a demo so you can test it in real-time.

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Conclusion

Everyone has thought about their business at least once nowadays. There are lots of ideas on how to start an online business. Logistics and delivery services have a lot of responsibilities. The personal websites of companies are as important as advertising. Firstly, it is prestigious, and secondly, convenient for the client himself. He can get acquainted with all information in a few clicks and order the package to the destination. A significant factor is the client’s first impression when he visits an online page. These and other equally important issues are fully covered by the ready-made WordPress delivery service templates. You need only to adapt the template for his company and you can begin to conquer the Internet! With a little hard work, your courier business can be profitable in no time.

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FAQ

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