Retail and e-commerce - September 2019
Online delivery innovation and research
BIEK (in German) studied the consolidation of parcel shipments for an urban area, in the cities of Nuremberg and Munich. The report (in German, 1.28 MB) shows a reduction of the number of vans by a maximum of one, resulting in slightly shorter routes. However, the small consolidation gains in logistics services are lost in whole or in part due to the inter-depot traffic required, even with favourable depot locations.
In the USA, Amazon Scout brings a future of autonomous delivery a bit closer. Introduced in small numbers, customers in the Irvine area will order just as they normally would, and their packages will be delivered either by one of their trusted carrier partners or by Amazon Scout.
Growth of e-commerce
According to Euromonitor, the rise of the marketplace model in the Asia pacific is one of the major reasons why digital commerce has grown and will continue to do so. This is enforced by the pillars; security to payments and reliability to delivery. Examples of these marketplaces are Alibaba, JD.com and Rakuten. A link to the report will be sent to you after you have filled in your details.
In 2018, the growth in parcel delivery in the Netherlands compensated the decrease in postal delivery, which generated a total turnover of 3.5 billion euros, according to a recent report (in Dutch, 811 kB) by ACM. In a report (3.33 MB) Colliers also reported growth in online groceries by 30% over the past year. According to the authors this won’t impact the physical supermarket.
The growth of Russian e-commerce is documented in a new EWDN report. You can download part one and part two of this report after filling in your details.
Loyalty of the online customer
According to a recent Dotcom report, today’s consumers expect and rely on multichannel touchpoints throughout their shopping journey. When a customer receives an online order, this may be their first physical interaction with a brand, and in that lies huge opportunity for impact. Also, the shipment strategy influences the decision of the consumer. A link to the report will be sent to you after you have filled in your e-mail address.
33% of Dutch consumers, choose a different provider after a poor delivery experience, according to Kieskeurig.nl (in Dutch). This show the importance of a good customer experience.
UPS also concludes this and makes the following statements; Make the first impression positive and simple, create a buying experience that makes your customer feel valued and at the center of a positive emotional experience, shoppers want choice, control and convenience with their deliveries, the final impression you make matters as much as the first and communicate via multiple channels. A link to the UPS report will be sent to you after you have filled in your details.
Sustainable packaging design approach
In an article (502 kB) in the IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, researchers at Xihua University state that the development of online shopping has boosted the express delivery market, and it has caused heavy burdens to the environment. The most serious problem is the waste of resources and environmental pollution because of excessive packaging waste. By implying a system thinking approach, an eco-design of a courier packaging is no longer treated as a separate link, but from a perspective of an eco-friendly product system as a goal to achieve an overall optimal system.
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