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Do you remember the old days of receiving online purchases? Nothing could be more annoying than missing your delivery and having to wait at the post office to retrieve your purchase. And didn’t I order it online to avoid waiting in queues in the first place?
With an estimated $10.8 billion increase in the online retail market, there needed to be new ways of delivering the rapid increase in the purchase of small packages directly to the home. Online sellers, Australia Post, third party logistics companies, and many more in the industry are starting to lead the way and have given the customer the choice of how they would like their package delivered.
The first and most basic option on offer for consumers is the option to leave a parcel at the nominated destination if there is no one there. The Iconic offers 3 hours delivery and the option to leave the parcel there even if unattended. Not everyone is keen on having there awaited items abandoned, but this is a great option for those who like to get there online goods delivered to work.
The most viable and the most recent develop is the option to pick up your goods from a parcel locker. Australia Post and TZ Limited offer consumers this service as a 24 hour option to pick up your parcel from a designated locker either at the post office or a gas station etc. There are however a plethora of third party forwarders such as Parcel Point who have developed relationships with local businesses in order to give consumers the ability to pick their package up with ease.
These options are shaping the future of the online retail industry. But one of the recurring themes in most of these developments is the ability to give the customer choice. We are no longer in the times of waiting between 2-3 weeks for a parcel that is coming from within Australia, with no options to track it and no alternative way of picking it up if you miss the package.
With an increasingly flexible logistics network for online shoppers, with great choice comes great responsibility. Online shoppers are willing to wait for their goods but do expect them to be delivered within the estimated time frame. Another important equation into the consumer decision on shipping costs is the cost factor, with majority of consumers choosing the most budget friendly delivery options.
If you would like to learn more about this, the Online Retail Logistics conference will be covering everything from mobile devices within the supply chain, to giving customers reliability, security and visibility. We’d also like to know your thoughts on the changes in the online retail industry; would you choose the cheapest or fastest delivery option? And which method of pick-up do you prefer?