Analysis: Who Will Bear The Cost Of Express "Last Mile"?

< p > you will be happy to let others open your car trunk and put groceries you buy when you are not in the car.

You will trust a random stranger to send you a pair of new a shoes "/a" when you pass through your home.

You will be happy to receive prescription drugs from a UFO outside your home.

All this is to avoid walking more than a mile, and personally collect cheap goods ordered from the Internet.

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< p > but all these choices need money, and lazy and impatient Internet consumers are unwilling to pay the money.

If it is clear, except for the most remote areas or the most special cases, the UAV is unworkable, so the initial excitement aroused by Amason (Amazon) to "automatic air a href=" http://sjfzxm.com/news/index_c.asp "express Er < /a" will gradually disappear.

Courier deliveries will mainly focus on office space, because many people spend most of their time in the daytime.

This raises the question of consumers, mail rooms, retailers or express companies, who should bear the cost of "last mile" for Internet consumers.

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In the past, retail supply chain is much simpler than P.

Goods delivered to the supply hub will be distributed in large quantities to a limited number of stores, which can save costs.

E-commerce facilitates the shopping of consumers, but it also highlights the shortest step in the whole process is the most difficult to replace - we all have to go through this step before we shop in the sofa with iPad.

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There has been a great deal of innovation in building a bridge between the warehouse and the doorway of P.

These include Volvo (Volvo)'s "a href=" http://sjfzxm.com/news/index_c.asp "roaming express < /a >" (roam delivery), motorists can activate the one-time digital key with mobile phones, arrange the courier to store groceries on their cars.

In New York, Zipments, a start-up, acts as an intermediary between consumers and free courier networks.

WAL-MART (Walmart) hinted that it might offer discounts to consumers who agreed to send goods to other consumers, combined with the crowd logistics and shared economy, which is similar to the trial service launched by the German postal group Deutsche Post DHL in Stockholm.

In Brussels, TNT TNT (Express) is experimenting with the "mobile warehouse", a trailer that enters the city centre every day. A team of electric tricycles with signs will deliver the packages on the trailer.

In Indonesia and other developing countries, online retailers are building their own courier network. These local knowledge can overcome the lack of infrastructure and the lack of reliable express addresses.

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Rolle Gevaers, Universiteit Antwerpen (University of Antwerp) has been analyzing the "last mile" innovation from enterprises to consumers in P University.

He pointed out that consumers usually pay for goods that cost more than 75 euros and receive goods at home.

If goods are below this price, they want fast and best delivery service.

Failure to deliver goods to the home will increase the cost of delivery, and the flawed incentives (to pay the subcontractor's remuneration only according to the successful delivery or not) will bring terrible results: fragile items are stuffed into the mailbox, clothes remain on the trash can (and are not accidentally recycled as waste products), and flowers are thrown on the fence of the garden.

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< p > the shock of the first revolution of retailing led to the failure of the earliest "last mile" competition in 2001.

At that time, Webvan, an online grocer, declared bankruptcy because he misjudged the cost of service.

Retailers may eventually refuse to provide free courier services.

Consumers may think that buying goods in traditional stores (like most people are still doing) may be simpler and safer, rather than using mouse clicks to pick up goods, then for unreliable express all day, or for a start-up test bet.

But this time, online shopping will continue to exist. The significance of delivering goods to the office space is this.

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< p > delivery to office space can eliminate the failure of delivery, let the courier deliver more products at once, and distribute the business and personal packages together, which can reduce the cost by 30% or 40%.

However, the current express payment is for office buildings or tenants.

Last Christmas, PWC (PwC) said its staff in London's mail room, like Santa Claus, distributed gifts online to the accountants in the office.

However, even the elves have their own limitations.

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< p > if employees are forbidden to accept "a href=" http://sjfzxm.com/news/index_c.asp "parcel < /a" during working hours (some companies have already done so), or let them pay for such benefits, it will be a bit ruthless.

The office should recover some of the cost from the e-commerce company, because the latter freely uses its heavily loaded internal mail room.

Employees will receive goods in the office, and retailers can pay for additional services, such as paying for the unwanted online shopping items for the supply hub, while the heavily criticized mail room (once threatened by e-mail) may even become a profit center.

Now is the time to close the < a href= "http://sjfzxm.com/news/index_c.asp > Amazon tax < /a >.

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