How can a local business deliver faster and cheaper?

Own the inventory. Rent the last mile. Speed is won before the driver even moves. Put the product close to the customer and the final trip becomes shorter, faster and potentially cheaper. The giants spend billions trying to get closer. Amazon has invested $4 billion in its US rural delivery network and now offers Same-Day Delivery in more than 10,000 US cities and towns. Amazon Now delivers selected products in about 30 minutes. Amazon even patented an airborne fulfillment center: an airship at 45,000 feet designed to dispatch delivery drones from the sky. A local legend already has what they are building: proximity. Your shop is also a warehouse. If your customer lives 2 km away, turn that geographic advantage into a delivery advantage. Do not automatically build a fleet. Plug into Uber Direct or another local delivery network. They provide the courier. Uber Direct pricing starts around $7 per delivery in the US, with 0% commission. That is the owner's time back too. No drivers to hire, no vans to insure, no routes to plan. Those hours go to the customers, the shop floor, the marketing and the next location. Next: drones. For small, urgent orders, scaled drone delivery could cost roughly $1 to $2 per trip, versus $10 to $15 for conventional instant delivery. The future of local retail is not beating Amazon at being Amazon. It is making proximity your unfair advantage.