Companies will look closely at how delivery impacts customer satisfaction, profits, and corporate social responsibility, paving the way for new trends in the coming years.
FREMONT, CA: Today, more companies focus on the importance of last-mile delivery, giving logistics a place in the C-suite and the boardroom. Post-pandemic economic realities and pressing issues, such as climate change, push businesses to the highest levels of leadership. As a result, the C-suite is closely looking at every operation with a new focus on how delivery directly impacts customer satisfaction, profits, and corporate social responsibility.
This will lead to significant shifts impacting the logistics market, particularly the last mile, in the coming years. Those shifts include focusing on last-mile accuracy, increased IT spending, and accelerated sustainability initiatives. This will pave the way for new last-mile trends revolutionising the market.
The C-Suite and Boardroom Interest in Last-Mile Delivery
Logistic heads will increasingly report to the CEO as fulfilment joins sales and marketing as the most critical aspects of running a successful business. They will also have a position and more involvement in the business strategy from the beginning. Consumers expect next- or same-day delivery with total visibility, ensuring a superior customer experience as a priority and integral to building loyalty, gaining a competitive advantage, and growing market share.
Re-evaluating Delivery Tech Stacks for Optimisation and Sustainability
As economic headwinds accelerate, supply chain organisations encounter growing pressure to do more with less, particularly those grappling with staff shortages. Companies will re-evaluate their current delivery stacks and seek best-in-class software optimising all aspects of last-mile operations to increase cost-efficiency and scale dynamically as demand increases. Optimisation is a key to a superior delivery experience becoming more integral to customer loyalty and market growth.
B2B Customers will Expect More B2C-like Experience
Businesses look for greater certainty and transparency in delivery. Whether regular stock or perishables are required in restaurants and grocery stores, businesses move toward just-in-time ordering to control inventory and contain expenses as they contend with inflation, rising costs, and labour shortages. Organisations serving the B2B market should be prepared to meet precise delivery time demands and ensure that products will arrive exactly when their customers expect them.
Sustainability Actions are Critical
Sustainability has become a serious talk in businesses. However, many companies have gotten by greenwashing instead of making true, actionable commitments to environmental change. It is unrealistic for businesses to be 100 per cent sustainable from the beginning. They should continuously make progressive improvements through strategic business plans, such as reducing miles driven, decreasing trucks on the road, or adding electric or semi-electric vehicles to the fleet.
The pandemic brought various challenges and transformed most businesses. Many were compelled to adopt technological solutions faster to meet the changing customer demand. Companies will experience a fascinating period in the coming years as technological solutions and new trends revolutionise last-mile deliveries to meet shoppers’ demand for convenience and improve connectivity to gain a competitive advantage.
