Radical transformation of last-mile delivery is underway. The purpose of this webinar is to shed light on key areas in reshaping delivery services.
In this 90 minute webinar on the transformation of last-mile delivery, several themes that are radically reshaping delivery services will be highlighted. They are:
- Sustainability. Although it has been studied extensively throughout the past 20 years, the environmental impact of e-commerce can still be considered a controversial subject. Particularly for those wondering whether online shopping constitutes a more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional store-based shopping, evidence can be found that supports affirmative as well as opposing claims. This presentation dicusses the results of a systematic quantitative review of environmental impact assessments that compare the carbon footprint of online and store purchases.
- Seamless customer journey. The increasing pressure on logistics performance in e-retail led to a rise in new sources of competitive advantage, recourses optimization, and a transition to a consumer-centric supply chain management. New data sources provide insights into consumer journeys, experiences, demands, and behavioral responses but are not being utilized by market actors to their full potential. This research seeks to identify and quantify delivery touchpoints through consumer-generated data to answer the question: How does online retail logistics affect the e-consumer experience in terms of star rating and online reviews? To do that, over 100 million orders, ratings, and reviews have been analyzed from Amazan US uitilizing text mining techniques.
- Customer delivery experience. Creating a superior customer experience has become a holy grail for many retailers. Fueled by the paid rise of c-commerce, last-mile delivery has become a critical touchpoint with great importance for the overall retail experience. This presentation discusses the results of a collaborative field study of consumers' unattended home delivery experience. The results show that last-mile delivery experience is multidimensional and identifies six experience dimensions. Further, the study illustrates how delivery services contribute to a more meaningful and satisfactory experience.
Panel speakers
- Heleen Buldeo Rai. She is a senior researcher at the Mobilise Research Group of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Supported by a fellowship from Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO), she specialises in e-commerce, urban logistics and sustainability. Heleen obtained a PhD in Business Ecomonics at the MOBI research group of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 2019 in Brussels, Belgium and carried out postdoctoral research at the Logistics City chair of the Université gustave Eiffel between 2020 and 2022 in Paris, France. Heleen has authored several scientific publications and has given guest lectures in various undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. She published a best practice guide on sustainable e-commerce supply chains in 2021, provides expert consultancy on the topic and engages in public speaking. Her book was awarded by Platform Innovation in Marketing in 2022.
- Yulia Vakulenko. She holds a PhD in Packaging Logistics, part of the ReLog research group at Campus Helsingborg and affiliated researcher at the center for retail research at Lund university. She works in the domain that primarily covers the area of last mile distribution and overlaps with topics from the fields of retail, marketing and operations management. Currently, Yulia's research concerns parcel locker policy, AI and Big Data analytics in e-retail logistics, service digitalization, and rural supply chain management.
- John Olsson. He is a doctoral student in packaging logistics at LTH, part of the ReLog research group at Campus Helsingborg and affiliated researcher at the center for retail research at Lund Univeristy. His research centers on e-commerce last-mile delivery from a consumer-centric perspective. He also teaches in the Logistics Service Management program on Campus Helsingborg.