Convincing Your Management: The Competitive Advantage of Territory Mapping in Expanding Delivery Networks

Poor territorial planning can increase operational expenses and harm productivity.

10:10 08 May 2024

Poor territorial planning can increase operational expenses and harm productivity. Among the key challenges logistics companies need to address are inefficient fleet and resource management, sticking to traditional geographical limits, high customer service costs, area overlap, and unwanted gaps between territories. Territory mapping can overcome many of these limitations.

A 2022 study showed that 37% of companies were accelerating their delivery network expansion, and 14% were speeding up the expansion of their retail networks. Around 33% were reconsidering their delivery and retail network expansion. 

How can territory mapping support your network expansion efforts?

As your delivery network expands, territory mapping software can help you scale by providing a structured framework for managing new territories and integrating them. New territories can be added systematically, ensuring that resources are allocated effectively and operations remain efficient.

By dividing the delivery area into territories, you can assign specific routes to each territory based on factors such as traffic patterns, distance, and delivery volume. This optimization can help minimize delivery times and transportation costs.

Territory mapping allows for efficient allocation of resources such as delivery vehicles and personnel. Based on the volume and demand within each territory, the appropriate number of delivery drivers and vehicles can be assigned to that area.

Territory mapping enables delivery companies to provide better customer service by ensuring that delivery drivers are familiar with their assigned territories. This familiarity can lead to quicker and more accurate deliveries as drivers become acquainted with the local roads, landmarks, and customer preferences. In 2023, 63% of online shoppers cited home delivery as the main reason they bought online. 45% of shoppers said they probably wouldn’t shop with a retailer again if the item wasn’t delivered on time.

Many consumers also expect deliveries within certain time frames. 38% said that if the delivery took longer than a week, they would abandon their order. Territory mapping enables delivery companies to segment markets based on purchasing behavior, demographics, and geographic characteristics. This segmentation allows for targeted marketing strategies and customized delivery services to meet the unique needs of different customer groups.

By diversifying delivery operations across multiple territories, companies can reduce the risk arising from dependence on a single geographic area. This geographic diversification can help mitigate the impact of factors such as adverse weather conditions, traffic disruptions, or localized economic downturns.

Expanding networks gets easier with mapped delivery areas

E-commerce retail sales are predicted to grow by over 45% from 2022 to 2025. By 2040, over 95% of all purchases will be via e-commerce. E-commerce companies need to know exactly which of their warehouses need replenishing. With a mapping tool, users can cross-reference order information with delivery areas to make proper sales attribution and expand the relevant delivery network correspondingly.

The e-commerce fulfillment services market is anticipated to grow to $198.62 billion globally by 2030. Order fulfillment becomes more complicated if you have multiple distribution centers and warehouses. With territory mapping tools, you can apply different methods to create maps with each distribution center and warehouse as the starting point, which will show where the products need to go.

Delivery businesses with multiple locations can compare areas to prevent overlap or minimize dead zones. This is an excellent way to research new locations if you’re expanding your delivery network.

The best mapping tools can pull gender distribution, average income, and other demographic information from your delivery zones. This can help expand your network by gauging the addressable market size around each hub in your infrastructure.

FAQ

What are the benefits of territory mapping?

Companies can monitor and assess how different territories perform and identify new expansion opportunities.

How do I choose the best mapping software?

Know what you want to achieve with your task or project, compare functions and features, and evaluate benefits and costs.

What are the benefits of Maptive?

Maptive is an intuitive territory mapping tool that offers numerous grouping capabilities based on a large number of data variables. It makes customization of territory maps easy and simple.