E-commerce has been growing for years, and the pandemic has only accelerated that growth. Daily deliveries of online purchases have always been the norm for parcel companies until now. However, to keep online shoppers happy, it is not always necessary to deliver items as quickly as possible. In fact, seven out of ten (68%) consumers are willing to receive their non-essential packages on two specific days a week rather than having the postman at the door every day.
A new study from Carnegie Mellon University and TCS asked more than 3,000 consumers in the United States for their thoughts on package consolidation. Research shows that standardized deliveries are more convenient for many people. By grouping deliveries, consumers have more certainty when items will arrive and can adjust their planning accordingly. As people become more of a hybrid business, this approach is likely to grow in importance. If people can coordinate work days and work days at home, they can plan when to receive deliveries.
The research also shows that people who receive incentives are more motivated to accept package integration programmes. 75% will sign up for this in exchange for loyalty card points and 81% in exchange for a gift card.
Parcel consolidation not only reduces the risk of lost deliveries and extra parcel theft for consumers, but also ensures less disruption to daily routines.
Package integration can bring great benefits conductors
Couriers also benefit: Consolidation ensures larger packages last mile capacity and significantly reduces costs. costs toaste mileDeliveries (the transportation of goods from distribution centers to their final destination, usually at the consumer’s home) account for more than half of total logistics costs. Taking into account the fact that consolidate packages only costs 20-40 cents more to deliverers than standard delivery, therefore consolidated packages are much cheaper. At least, if each consumer receives more than one package per delivery.
Finally, there are enormous environmental benefits. By integrating packages, deliverers can drastically reduce their environmental footprint. Fewer deliveries mean lower fuel consumption, fewer mileage, fewer emissions and fewer traffic jams. Consolidating packages could help undertakers to reverse some of the margin erosion seen in recent years as operating costs have risen. Additionally, parcel consolidation can help deliverers deal with peak periods of demand – for example during the holiday season.
Abstract
While the study focused on implementing package consolidation in the United States, the researchers believe there is a strong potential for this in other markets as well. Parcel integration offers attractive operational and environmental advantages in places with mature economies, strong e-commerce markets, and high population density (eg UK, continental Europe, Japan, China, Brazil, India, Argentina, Colombia). Urban areas are particularly well suited, as densely populated areas are particularly expensive to service with the current approach to “last mile” delivery.
###
More TATA Consulting Services
Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organization that has been in partnership with the world’s largest companies for over 50 years. TCS offers a full suite of consulting and knowledge-led business, technology and engineering services and solutions. This is provided by the unique Location Independent Agile™ delivery model, which is seen as a benchmark of software development excellence.
As part of the Tata Group, India’s largest multinational conglomerate, TCS provides over 488,000 of the world’s best trained consultants in 46 countries. The company generated consolidated revenue of $22.2 billion in the financial year ended March 31, 2021 and is listed on the BSE (formerly Bombay Stock Exchange) and NSE (National Stock Exchange) in India. TCS’s proactive commitment to climate change and its award-winning work with communities around the world has earned it a place in leading sustainability indicators such as the MSCI Global Sustainability Index and the Emerging FTSE4Good Index. For more information, go to www.tcs.com And follow the news of TCS Tweet embed And stay informed.
This article is a submission and is not the responsibility of the editors.
