Page 16 - IFV_Issue 5_May_2022

Business

or online shoppers, the time
it takes for their parcel to
Freach them – after pressing
pay – does matter. Consumers have
become far less patient during the
pandemic; there was an exponential
rise in eCommerce, with everything
from groceries, to alcohol, hair care
products and medicine all being
ordered online.
In fact, so entrenched has this
new behaviour become that online
delivery options are springing up all
over the place, with some of the most
recent grocery options being Pick n
Pay’s ASAP and Spar2U. With so many
online options now available, it is
doubtful consumers will ever return to
pre-Covid19 shopping behaviour.
Yet while consumers spent around
R5-billion online in South Africa in
2021, getting their products to them
has become a delicate balancing act,
one where speed has become a highly-
Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash it takes to deliver quickly has become
traded commodity while the cost that

a commercial conundrum for retailers.
The primary issue is that it costs
more to get a parcel to a customer
faster. Throw in unknown issues such
as traffic, inaccurate mapping and
even weather, not to mention that
IT’S THE DELIVERY the customer may not be at their
address when the parcel arrives, and
EXPERIENCE THAT the result is that the brands are sitting
with a financial headache, where
they increasingly need to meet their
COUNTS customers’ demands but come up

against a barrage of costly delays.
This is especially true given ‘last-
Instant gratification drives last-mile mile delivery’ – this is the final leg in

the eCommerce process when the
technology advancements parcel is delivered to the customer. It

accounts for 53% of the total costs of
shipping – but it’s a stage for which
customers are largely unwilling to pay.
This threatens profitability, especially
for smaller brands.

14 • Issue 5 2022 • The Villager