A study of the last-mile e-commerce logistics : business-to-consumer e-commerce

• Main Author: Yip, Joo Yee
• Other Authors: Teo Chee Chong
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Maritime studies
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/75346
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In a world of technology advancements, e-commerce has been widely seen as a more convenient option than physical shopping these days. The emergence of e-commerce and fast changing shopping landscape has led to high pressures set on these e-commerce operators to meet the expectations of consumers, especially at the point of delivery where customers receive their orders. Last mile delivery is considered the largest cost incurred among the logistics processes, taking up more than 50% of the total logistics cost. Such complex and difficult distribution process is plagued by many challenges, including high expectations and demand, failed deliveries, traffic congestions and half-filled vehicles. In order to overcome the challenges faced by this cost-intensive last mile process, e-commerce have adopted different last mile delivery methods to eliminate such problems and reduce running costs. The report aims to identify the last mile models utilised by different e-commerce operators to meet the high expectations of consumers while resolving the issues faced. Through case illustrations of e-commerce operators, it can be seen that B2C last mile fulfilment models have been highly influenced by the trends, changing landscape of e-commerce and consumer’s shopping behaviour. Most last mile delivery models are often unattended to avoid failed delivery problems. Lifestyle changes has also led to attended deliveries being less viable than others, where unlike before, people tend to stay less at home these days due to working hours. With e-commerce becoming more and more convenient, it is natural for consumers to have higher expectations for the delivery service levels when they make purchases online. However, since deliveries are leaning towards unattended method, to meet the expectations of these online consumers may require a higher service level provided outside of human interactions and more of other value added features such as packaging and tracking abilities. E-commerce will still be constantly experiencing changes and disruptions. As last mile becomes a directly dependent factor of e-commerce landscape, online business operators have to be on a lookout for last mile delivery tactics offered to catch up or even be ahead of the market levels.