Page 32 - Waterfall_Issue 5_2022

Waterfall Lifestyle

F or online shoppers, the time it

takes for their parcel to reach
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,
Checkers Sixty60 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-
traded commodity while the cost that
PHOTO BY SINCERELY MEDIA ON UNSPLASH a commercial conundrum for retailers.
it takes to deliver quickly has become

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 the customer may not be at their
address when the parcel arrives, and
the result is that the brands are sitting
DELIVERY with a financial headache, where
they increasingly need to meet their
customers’ demands but come up
EXPERIENCE against a barrage of costly delays.

This is especially true given ‘last-
THAT COUNTS mile delivery’ – this is the final leg in
the eCommerce process when the
parcel is delivered to the customer. It
accounts for 53% of the total costs of
Instant gratification drives last-mile shipping – but it’s a stage for which
customers are largely unwilling
to pay. This threatens profitability,
technology advancements especially for smaller brands.

Antonio Bruni, CEO of smart logistics
technology solution Picup, says the
last-mile leg of the delivery journey is

30 Waterfall Issue 5 2022