Grand & Toy is showing businesses what a difference a day makes with a new campaign for its eco-friendly 48-hour delivery option.
By moving to a 48-hour delivery instead of next-day service, Grand & Toy is able to improve order quality and shorten delivery routes, which lowers the company’s overall carbon footprint, said John Scheel, vice-president, supply chain at Grand & Toy.
The company is supporting the new delivery option with print ads and online initiatives from Extreme Group, its agency of record for small business strategy.
The print ads use images of office supplies that have been chained to a tree. The headline reads: “We’re taking a stance when it comes to the environment.”
“Grand & Toy is aiming to offer its clients simple, effective ways to run their businesses as sustainably as possible. The latest campaign reminds people that even the smallest changes can make a significant difference,” said Michael Armstrong, vice-president, managing director, Extreme Group, in a release.
The company also launched an online Green Meter counter at GrandAndToy.com/48Hours that tracks the number of customers per day that have selected the option. At press time, 37% of purchasers had chosen the 48-hour option.
“The concept of the Green Meter is to show people who are potentially sitting on the fence that they’re part of something,” said Scheel. “They’re part of a movement, their actions are measurable, so it’s a way of showing our customers that their contributions are being noted, and it becomes more of a contest.”
If an order is “mission critical,” Grand & Toy will still deliver the next day.
“We have left the decision 100% in the hands of the customer, so they get to make the choice,” said Scheel.
According to the company, Grand & Toy made 8.4 million deliveries to Canadian businesses in 2008.
Until today, the 48-hour and next-day delivery options were only available to online customers within local/urban trading areas. Now the eco-friendly option is open to customers located within a six-hour radius of major trading areas.
When Grand & Toy first launched the program to its online customers last February, more than 50% of customers signed up for the 48-hour delivery and made it their default delivery choice.
The company anticipates that 50% of all orders will be shipped via 48-hour delivery by December.
Earlier this year, Grand & Toy launched Green Office, a website for small businesses interested in becoming environmentally sustainable.
