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Consumer parcel deliveries are being dramatically disrupted and transformed by fast-changing customer demands and rapid technological innovations, speakers agreed at the Leaders In Logistics Last Mile conference this week.
On the one side, customers want choice, convenience and control when it comes to their deliveries, forcing carriers to adapt their services and operations. At the same time, technologies such as AI and automation are creating new opportunities for how companies operate and serve their customers.
Those were some of the key points in a wide-ranging panel discussion between senior executives from Royal Mail, Geopost, PostNord, Aramex and Uber Direct at the two-day event in London, which was attended by about 800 international parcel, logistics and retail experts, including CEP-Research.
“Waves of disruption”
Setting the scene, moderator Richard Lim, CEO of research company Retail Economics, had previously highlighted several “waves of disruption” impacting on the delivery sector.
On the retailer side, he pointed out, Chinese marketplaces such as Temu and second-hand goods marketplaces such as Vinted are growing rapidly, while large retailers are increasingly also turning their webshops into marketplaces offering a huge range of products from different suppliers. At the same time, social commerce such as TikTok Shop is also growing rapidly.
In parallel, Lim stressed that AI technology “is really changing the way business are operating” while also enabling AI-assisted commerce, helping consumers to search for products and services.
As a result, the customer journey “is enormously more complex” than one or two generations ago, he pointed out. GenZ shoppers want “immerse experiences”, they research diverse sellers before selecting a product, and they also have “unreasonably high expectations” for cheap, fast and flexible deliveries, he explained.
Keeping up with changing customer expectations
Asked how carriers can keep up with fast-changing customer expectations, panelists agreed on several key points during their discussion.
Alistair Cochrane, Royal Mail’s interim CEO, stressed that choice, reliability and convenience are key to making delivery as frictionless as possible. “We need to adapt to the customer… everybody is a seller these days,” he commented.
Lene Reipuert, PostNord Denmark’s COO, agreed that delivery companies “need to help consumers be in control” and ensure their demands are fulfilled. For Ala’a Saoudi, Aramex’s COO, carriers have to “focus on the basics” by providing different delivery options and ensuring communications and shipment visibility.
Hervé Crochet, Geopost’s global head of sales, stressed that personalised information and convenient services such as digital wallet payments are essential, especially as different generations have different requirements.
Need for speed?
Questioned whether consumers still want rapid deliveries these days, Mia Yamaguchi, Uber Direct’s Retail Development Lead for the UK and Ireland, stressed that Millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha “are used to immediacy” with rapid shopping. “Speed dictates their whole experience,” she commented.
This also applied to social commerce where younger consumers want “instant gratification” and traditional retailers had to ensure they kept with the latest shopping trends, she pointed out.
In contrast, Geopost’s Crochet underlined that the need for speed varies not only by the type of consumer but also depends on the market. “For example, the circular economy is not fast,” he pointed out.
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