Large retailers have started a new trend: opening sortation centers to cut costs and simultaneously reduce delivery times. The impact of such a move comes as no surprise. For example, data from Target shows that the first 10 of its new sortation facilities have boosted next-day deliveries by more than 150%.  

But like many other logistics innovations, big and bulky goods have largely been left on the sidelines of the ultrafast delivery trend. These goods have historically been considered too awkward, too labor-intensive and generally unsuited to the logistics of rapid delivery networks. Recent research conducted by Roadie and Supply Chain Dive’s studioID found that 36.7% of retailers, e-tailers and other businesses restrict the delivery of big and bulky items for many of these reasons. 

But times are changing. The just-in-time (JIT) principles popularly used to expedite processing times in sortation centers are now, for the first time, being applied to big and bulky goods in specially-designed facilities. The cross-docking approach is then augmented with a crowdsourced delivery channel developed for the same-day delivery of larger goods. This combination allows retailers to replace the patchwork of slow, costly regional carriers many use today with an expanding national network that enables fast, affordable delivery of big and bulky goods. 

Offering a rapid, satisfying delivery experience for oversized items drives loyalty and revenue; Roadie’s survey found that the top anticipated benefits of improving the oversized delivery experience include increasing sales of oversized items (63%) and improving the customer’s oversized delivery experience (57%).

Behind the scenes, this approach enables retailers to access the same cutting-edge sortation strategies that lower costs and increase efficiency for standard-sized goods. The survey found that retailers that have used a third party for oversized goods cross-docking report increases in both productivity (62%) and efficiency (45%). Evidently, the availability of efficient big and bulky delivery across a large geographic footprint opens up new frontiers in product assortments, customer experience and revenue opportunity. 

“Oversized items tend to be higher-margin goods,” said Chris Grubb, head of marketing at Roadie, a UPS company, whose new big and bulky delivery network, RoadieXD™, is set to enable retailers to reach more than 200 million US households by the end of 2025. 

“Having faster delivery and a better experience is going to allow merchants to capture more online sales so they can create greater customer loyalty, improve cart sizes and increase sales of big and bulky goods,” Grubb added. “Later order cut-off times and more predictable delivery drive top-line revenue. And from a bottom-line perspective – with very few hand-offs and an efficient network – we can lower their overall costs.” 

Solving big and bulky delivery

With no national carriers specializing in oversized products until now, offering delivery of these items has meant dedicating space, dock doors and labor to prep them in the warehouse, then tendering these orders to a parcel or less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier that tacks on early cut-offs and surcharges or cobbling together a network of regional couriers. Some skip handling entirely, turning to dropshipping for oversized goods.

In all of these approaches, the typical result is seven- to 10-day delivery times, multiple hand-offs, higher damage rates and a loss of visibility and control of the post-sales process. This scenario often puts would-be buyers off and creates poor delivery experiences for customers who do make a purchase.

A dedicated, nationwide big and bulky delivery network addresses all those pain points. Retailers can offer normal cut-off times for oversized goods, converting buyers during critical shopping times, then pack all big and bulky orders into a single trailer or request pickup from stores. In the morning, the FTL or LTL trailers are picked up, delivered to cross-docks, and then sorted and turned over to a network of independent drivers who are given efficient, optimized stop suggestions to get them to customers’ doorsteps that same day.  

The ability to reduce the delivery of even the most awkwardly shaped items from one week to one day has a cascading effect across a retailer’s business. It increases conversion rates, drives loyalty and elevates the customer experience by providing them with everything they crave: faster delivery, real-time tracking and delivery window certainty. This is particularly true for consumers who don't want their oversized goods to be left on the porch; in some cases, the item can even be carried inside. 

It also enables retailers to expand their assortments of high-margin, oversized SKUs and reposition their inventory to gain a competitive advantage, reaching a broader area while reducing necessary stocking locations. 

Those benefits are driving rapid oversized delivery expansion. “Roadie is great at flexible, fast delivery, as well as big and bulky delivery,” says Grubb. “What we're enabling through RoadieXD™ is a more efficient hub and spoke network to do what Roadie already does very well. We’re expanding beyond store-to-door delivery to offer a much larger footprint — to national distribution. That's what makes this really exciting.”