The growth of E-commerce markets results to an increase of the importance of last mile deliveries in the city areas. And with the increase of the demand for online orders, complexities also come into place when we understand the factors that affects the last mile delivery. Home deliveries / Office deliveries are the major functions for B2C markets, and logistics players find it relatively difficult to deliver the shipments within “Expected Date of Delivery (EDD)”, majorly due to unavailability of the Consignees. Hence a need for the alternative measure to increase the Strike rates. In recent years a very interesting solution “Parcel Lockers” has become an efficient alterative for last mile delivery entities & solve the problem.
Parcel lockers have been around for quite a good time, but it’s widely used in the recent times especially during the pandemic. The blog will give a view on very quick facts related to this most efficient solution for last mile delivery – Parcel Locker Delivery systems (PLDS)
What is a Parcel Locker?
As the name identifies, it’s ideally a Lockable storage Box – where parcel can be kept securely & picked up by relevant consumers only – collected by carriers, postal services, logistics companies, residents in apartment complexes, SEZs & office premises, customers at the retail stores, Public transport places etc. It provides a simple, safe & effective solution for logistics companies and to be used by various consumers. Tech Build Smart lockers are highly secured, software integrated and quite intelligent to serve the modern day needs. Although the increasing demand is quite understandable – But for end consumers more than a solution, It is an “Experience”
Why there is a need of Parcel Lockers?
Undoubtedly, it’s a fact that almost all the customers would like to have their shipments delivered at the door steps – either it’s a residential or home address. However due to various complexities at the last mile, the solution is catching fast in various parts of the world. In India, although “Cash On delivery” is most admired & preferred option of accepting a shipment – mostly in smaller towns & Interior parts of the nation. But in larger cities, metropolis – parcel lockers has emerged and has been a sensible solution for various retailers, online players & logistics solution providers.
The popularity has increased because of various reasons, both for the consumers & also for the Retailers and Logistics players.
How parcel lockers are changing the way “Customers” looks at the parcel Industry:
The courier & parcel industry is changing rapidly, exponentially and for a better. Day to day the consumer behaviours are changing and its being very demanding for the retailers & logistics players to fulfil the demands. It all started with expected date of delivery (EDD) but later through the evolution of the market the requirement has expanded to “Same day delivery”, “Next day Delivery” & even hourly deliveries. With increase in Hyperlocal deliveries also, customer expectations has shifted from days & hours to Minutes.
And the competitive war between the retailers to increase the market share, emphasises them to have aggressive selling strategies. And everything drills down to “How happy my customers are”? The major problems of last mile delivery that reduces the strike rate, increases the cost of logistics players – is when the delivery staff doesn’t know whom to delivery & where to delivery. It’s purely about “Not accessible”, “Consignee’s Unavailability”. There where the solution comes as ‘Parcel locker” – Accessible, safe & secured and also highly smart. And various research papers have proved that,
- Demands are growing very rapidly, and thus the volatility – It’s an era to practice agility.
- The powers are in the hand of customer.
- Last mile is the Key for all the retailers & the focus is to improve customer experience & reduce cost.
- B2C market is growing & too outgrowing the B2B markets.
- Sharing economy will lead the last mile deliveries.
- Home delivery is a new fashion & this will evolve with various folds.
- Investors are eyeing the industry in a great way, so as the logistics players are expanding to their peak.
All research patterns specify that the increasing number of online buyers, has given rise to online retailers & growth in the logistics sectors also. To meet the competition, the logistics engines are transitioning the traditional supply chain by improving the weak links. This is the time for the change, and companies have started re-looking at the business model itself – and the change is to create a better value chain. Currently the last mile models including the postal mail, express logistics & home based delivery are comparatively complex, time sensitive & expensive too. While the demand from the customer is way behind what the current supply chain is. The emerging models & trends are more into courier delivery to parcel lockers which are simpler, faster & economical. The new age trend for the express logistics companies will always be on parcels, and the parcel economy has evolved as more transparent & efficient.
