How Building Merchants Can Improve Their Order-To-Delivery Process Accuracy and Protect Margins

Key takeaways

From order entry to proof of delivery, every building supply order has multiple opportunities to go off track — but there are solutions to prevent these scenarios. This article explores:

• Why small errors can have big consequences: Companies can experience everything from incorrect products and quantities to missed delivery locations and costly project delays.
• What a well-connected order-to-delivery process looks like: Better visibility, planning and communication can keep merchants and customers in control.
• How to handle the inevitable “Where’s my order?” call: Technologies such as AI can help staff find answers in minutes, rather than manually searching through multiple systems and records.

Every builders' merchant knows that the journey from order to delivery is rarely as straightforward as it appears. A contractor places an order expecting materials to arrive on site exactly when needed. Behind the scenes, however, that order passes through numerous people, systems and decisions before it reaches its destination.

In today's construction market, reliable deliveries have never been more important. Projects operate on tighter schedules, skilled labour remains in short supply, and contractors cannot afford crews waiting on site because essential materials have failed to arrive.

Research consistently shows that delivery performance has become one of the most important contributors to customer satisfaction. When deliveries are delayed, poorly communicated or difficult to trace, merchants don't just lose valuable time they risk damaging customer loyalty as well. Your source material highlights research showing that poor delivery experiences discourage repeat business and that customers increasingly expect timely communication when issues arise.

Yet many delivery problems don't begin when the lorry leaves the yard. They begin much earlier in the order process.

A delivery is only as good as the process behind it

Builders' merchants handle hundreds, sometimes thousands, of orders every week. While every order may appear routine, each one introduces numerous opportunities for mistakes.

The customer may order the wrong quantity because estimating materials on a construction project is rarely perfect. Industry research shows that contractors frequently place additional material orders because of shortfalls or estimation errors, creating extra work for merchants and increasing pressure on delivery operations. 

Sales staff may accidentally select an incorrect product, particularly where similar stock items exist. Timber merchants, for example, often need to distinguish between multiple board lengths, grades, or timber tallies while serving customers quickly.

Delivery locations can also present unexpected challenges. Construction sites frequently evolve throughout a project, and the official postal address may not accurately identify where materials should be unloaded. Drivers often rely on additional directions, landmarks, or local knowledge to find the correct location.

Meanwhile, dispatch teams must balance vehicle capacities, optimise delivery routes, accommodate urgent orders and avoid restrictions such as low bridges or weight limits.

None of these challenges is unusual. In fact, they represent the daily reality for most builders' merchants.

When one small mistake creates a much bigger problem

A wrong delivery costs far more than the price of putting the correct materials on another lorry. It can trigger investigation time, collection and redelivery costs, additional warehouse handling, credits and rebilling, and potentially an urgent replacement order. UK building-material suppliers commonly levy failed-delivery charges of around £50 or more, illustrating that even a single unsuccessful delivery has a tangible operational cost. The harder costs to quantify are the time spent resolving the problem, along with the impact on customer confidence when materials needed on site don't arrive as expected.

Consider a typical delivery.

A contractor orders timber, insulation and plasterboard for a new housing development.

The sales team quickly enters the order, confirms stock availability and schedules next-day delivery. So far, everything appears straightforward.

However, the construction site has recently expanded, and the original delivery address no longer identifies the correct unloading point. The driver eventually locates the site but unloads the materials near the original entrance rather than beside the active work area.

Later that afternoon, the site manager arrives and cannot find the delivery.

The first phone call is made: "Where's my order?"

From that point onwards, valuable time begins disappearing across the organisation.

• Customer service investigates the order.
• The transport office checks delivery schedules.
• Dispatch confirms which vehicle carried the materials.
• The driver is contacted.
• Proof of delivery must be located.

Eventually, someone discovers that the delivery was in fact completed successfully it simply wasn't left where the customer expected.

Situations like this occur every day across the industry. Although the delivery itself wasn't unsuccessful, the lack of visibility creates uncertainty for both merchant and customer.

What a good order-to-delivery process looks like

Leading builders' merchants are increasingly recognising that successful deliveries depend on much more than efficient transport. The entire order-to-delivery process needs to work as one connected workflow.

This essential process begins during order entry. Sales staff should be able to identify products quickly using descriptions, images and specifications while also seeing accurate available-to-sell inventory. For timber merchants, visibility of board lengths and tally information can significantly reduce ordering errors. There is also a big value in capturing precise delivery locations using mapping technology and services such as what3words, helping drivers locate evolving construction sites with greater accuracy.

Once orders move into dispatch, transport planning becomes equally important. Efficient route planning considers vehicle capacity, delivery priorities and road restrictions while producing practical schedules that maximise fleet utilisation. Digital manifests and mobile applications help drivers capture signatures, photographs and proof of delivery without relying on paper-based processes.

Mobile technology also enables merchants to keep customers informed throughout the delivery journey with timely updates, reducing uncertainty and improving the overall customer experience. When each stage of the process shares information seamlessly, merchants gain greater visibility while customers receive the confidence that their materials will arrive where and when expected.

The most expensive delivery is the one customer has to chase

Even with well-designed processes, questions will occasionally arise.

A contractor calls to say materials haven't arrived.

• Perhaps they have, but nobody can find them.
• Perhaps only part of the order was delivered.
• Perhaps the goods were signed for by another subcontractor.

Whatever the reason, speed matters.

Traditionally, answering these enquiries has required employees to search multiple ERP screens, delivery notes, transport records and proof-of-delivery documents before providing the customer with an answer. During that investigation, both the merchant and the contractor lose valuable time.

This is where modern technology is beginning to change customer service.

Rather than manually searching multiple records, intelligent assistants can retrieve the complete delivery history from a simple request. Within moments, they can identify the original order, confirm dispatch details, locate proof of delivery, retrieve site photographs and even prepare a customer email summarising what happened.

Epicor PRISM for BisTrack has been designed to support precisely these types of enquiries. Instead of replacing experienced staff, it enables customer service teams to resolve delivery questions far more quickly, allowing operators to spend less time searching for information and more time helping customers. Your draft describes this scenario as one of the strongest practical applications for PRISM, enabling rapid access to order, shipment and proof-of-delivery information while the customer remains on the phone.

Looking beyond the delivery

For builders' merchants, every successful delivery represents much more than moving products from warehouse to site. It demonstrates reliability, builds customer confidence and helps contractors keep projects on schedule.

As customer expectations continue to rise, merchants need systems that support every stage of the order-to-delivery journey, from accurate order entry and intelligent dispatch planning through to proactive communication and rapid resolution of delivery enquiries.

Solutions such as Epicor BisTrack are helping merchants bring these processes together within a single connected platform, while innovations like PRISM provide practical assistance when inevitable customer questions arise. The result is not simply faster deliveries, but better-informed employees, more confident customers and a smoother experience for everyone involved.

In an industry where margins remain tight, and customer loyalty is hard won, improving the order-to-delivery process may be one of the most valuable investments a builders' merchant can make.

Learn more about how BisTrack can help you reach your business goals.