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Exploring home delivery service attributes: Sustainability versus delivery expectations during the COVID-19 pandemic

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Abstract

Many consumers expect e-commerce home delivery to be sustainable and fast. To better understand the dilemma behind these requirements, we analyzed e-commerce players' practices and assessed consumers' preferences for home delivery using a mixed-methods approach. We used exploratory structured interviews with logistics and e-commerce companies to reveal their home delivery options, and a discrete choice experiment (DCE) with 400 consumers to identify their home delivery preferences. Our study provides new insights into consumer expectations and preferences regarding home delivery solutions offered by e-commerce companies. Our findings provide empirical evidence of consumer expectations regarding individualization, innovation, and sustainable service alternatives for home delivery. Our results indicate that delivery speed is the most desired home delivery attribute, followed by delivery options, reusable packaging, and delivery by electric delivery vehicles.

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... There is rising demand for platforms e-commerce platforms, which require product delivery to consumer after a product is bought online. COVID has added an even a higher rise in demand for such platform, also increasing pressure on LMD services, known to be as most expensive, least sustainable, and inefficient delivery with longer delivery times [1]- [3]. Consequently, this tendency has also increased LMD services environmental impacts, due to the use of diesel trucks to deliver products from warehouses to end customers. ...
... Looking at the introduction of EVs from the demand side point, the research evidence shows that presenting consumers with environmentally sustainable delivery options would of their interest [10]. The study of [1] revealed that customers who give importance and are willing to pay for environmentally friendly delivery prioritize sustainable delivery vehicles, meaning companies should be offering alternatives of delivery transport for customers who prioritize environmental impact. Other studies related to willingness to pay for emission offset in the transport sector also showed that part of society is willing to pay a relatively small price [11]. ...
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... Amongst others, this entailed a surge in demand for last-mile deliveries, including home and express deliveries of parcels, groceries and food, as well as causing a large shift to contactless shopping and delivery (Rothengatter et al. 2021;UNCTAD 2021;Pinchasik et al. 2023). These developments also necessitated a range of innovations at a much higher pace than planned for (Dablanc et al. 2022;Beckers and Cant 2024;Pinchasik et al. 2023;Figliozzi 2020, 2021;Settey et al. 2021;Kahalimoghadam et al. 2021;Karam et al. 2022;Seo et al. 2023;Kotzab et al. 2024). One such innovation in Norway included the implementation of parcel lockers as alternative to home deliveries . ...
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Numerous prosumers who share their spare resources have contributed significantly to sharing economy development in recent years. Existing research on the sharing economy has primarily focused on the service demand side of consumers, thus neglecting the service supply side of individual prosumers. Understanding of the service exchange between prosumers and customers in the peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing economy remains limited. Drawing on the motivation, opportunity, and ability (MOA) model and social exchange theory, we developed a conceptual framework to explore how prosumers’ service attributes influence consumers in a P2P accommodation sharing context. Using 313 questionnaires and 112 paired objective data points from prosumers in one popular P2P accommodation platform (i.e., Xiaozhu.com), this research found that prosumers’ economic motivation, service flexibility, and service knowledge level have distinct effects on consumers’ transactional-based and relational-based participation. We also found a moderating role of prosumers’ shared property management on these effects.
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Purpose The purpose of this research is to reveal consumer preferences towards innovative last-mile parcel delivery and more specifically unmanned aerial delivery drones, in comparison to traditional postal delivery (postie) and the recent rise of parcel lockers in Australia. The authors investigate competitive priorities and willingness to pay for key attributes of parcel delivery (mode, speed, method and time window), the role of contextual moderators such as parcel value and security and opportunities for logistics service providers in the growing e-commerce market. Design/methodology/approach A survey involving stated choice experiments has been conducted among 709 respondents in urban Australia. The authors estimated panel error component logit models, derived consumer priorities and deployed 576 Monte Carlo simulations to forecast potential delivery mode market shares. Findings The study results suggest that people prefer postie over drone delivery, all else equal, but that drone deliveries become competitive with large market shares if they live up to the premise that they can deliver faster and cheaper. Both drone and postie become less attractive relative to parcel lockers when there is no safe place to leave a parcel at a residence, highlighting the importance of situational context and infrastructure at the receiving end of last-mile delivery. The authors identified opportunities for chargeable add-on services, such as signature for postie and 2-h parcel deliveries for drones. Originality/value The authors offer timely and novel insights into consumers preferences towards aerial drone parcel deliveries compared to postie and lockers. Going beyond the extant engineering/operations research literature, the authors provide a starting point and add new dimensions/moderators for last-mile parcel delivery choice analysis and empirical evidence of market potential and competitive attributes of innovative versus traditional parcel delivery alternatives.
Article
E-commerce results in more last mile deliveries, increased freight traffic and potentially also higher CO2- emissions. This paper is a novel contribution to the literature in terms of investigating consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for climate-friendly last mile deliveries through reduced or no CO2-emissions from the delivery. 460 females between 18 and 70 years of age responded to an internet panel survey about their stated preferences for last mile delivery options for online clothing rentals. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was performed and the data analyzed using both multinomial logit (MNL) and mixed multinomial logit (MMNL) models. The results show that females are willing to pay for CO2-mitigation, and that their WTP increases with consumer income, employment, willingness to change habits to solve the environmental challenges of today, and preferences for sustainable online shopping and delivery alternatives, but decreases with the frequency of online shopping. The WTP for 1 kg CO2 exceeds the WTP for any other aspects of the last mile delivery; i.e. delivery time, delays and information services (notification of departure and arrival). The results indicate that freight operators (carriers) and online retailers can transfer (some of) the costs of climate-friendly last mile delivery to their customers. This is important knowledge for urban planners as it provides support for CO2-mitigating measures aimed at last mile delivery services in order to achieve more environmentally sustainable urban freight transport.
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Although retailers and logistics service providers offer various last mile delivery options, the level of individualisation regarding integrating consumer demands and expectations for home delivery is currently low. In order to offer such individualised delivery options, it is necessary to understand consumers' home delivery needs and wants. Accordingly, this paper examines consumer preferences regarding delivery options, focusing on online grocery retailing using a discrete choice experiment approach. Our results show that consumers can derive high benefits from the individualization of delivery options, especially in the areas of vehicle type and place of delivery. Also, packaging and delivery time are relevant delivery options for consumers but considered to be less useful than transport vehicles and place of delivery, while consumers do not prefer the selection of a time window on the day of delivery. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
Article
The use of cargo cycles for last-mile parcel distribution requires urban micro-consolidation centers (UMC). We develop an approach to localize suitable locations for UMCs with the consideration of three criteria: demand, land use, and type of road. The analysis considers metric levels (demand), linguistic levels (land use), and cardinal levels (type of road). The land-use category is divided into commercial, residential, mixed commercial and residential, and others. The type of road category is divided into bicycle road, pedestrian zone, oneway road, and traffic-calmed road. The approach is a hybrid multi-criteria analysis combining an Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) and PROMETHEE methods. We apply the approach to the city center of Stuttgart in Germany, using real demand data provided by a large logistics service provider. We compared different scenarios weighting the criteria differently with DART software. The different weight allocation results in different numbers of required UMCs and slightly different locations. This research was able to develop, implement, and successfully apply the proposed approach. In subsequent steps, stakeholders such as logistics companies and cities should be involved at all levels of this approach to validate the selected criteria and depict the “weight” of each criterion.
Article
In order to improve the satisfaction of online retail consumers and explore the process of forming consumer loyalty during the COVID-19 pandemic, this research combines the theories of perceived value and affect-as-information, taking cold chain logistics services (PDS) as an example to discuss the influence of PDS quality (PDSQ) of online retail cold chain on consumers' psychological emotion (satisfaction and psychological distress), attitude, and behaviour (loyalty). We collected 350 valid responses from an online response team in Wuhan, China, and analysed the data using exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. Results reveal that the general psychological distress of consumers plays an intermediary role in the influence path of PDSQ on consumer loyalty during the pandemic. Therefore, online retailers should combine logistics services with measures to alleviate consumer psychological distress in disaster situations, which can increase consumers' loyalty to online retailers. ARTICLE HISTORY
Article
Last-mile deliveries usually occur within urban areas where logistics operations increase congestion and emissions, as well as associated roadway-related health impacts. This paper evaluates the role of incentives for zero and near-zero emission vehicle (ZEV) technologies in last-mile delivery operations. Specifically, the study investigates the total cost of ownership and life cycle environmental impacts associated with last-mile deliveries, and compares the private and public costs of different vehicle powertrain and fuel pathways, under existing incentives in the State of California. The study analyzes driving patterns for several last-mile delivery vocations, including beverage, warehouse, parcel, grocery, food and local deliveries based on real-world truck travel data. Statistical analyses are conducted to compare driving patterns across vocations, vehicle classes, and powertrains, as well as across parcel carrier fleets. To better assess the role of the incentives, the study also provides a comparative estimate of the marginal health damages from life cycle emissions of criteria pollutants (e.g. /ton).Ourresultssuggestthatparceldeliveriesarecharacterizedbyshorttrips(95/ton). Our results suggest that parcel deliveries are characterized by short trips (95% less than 100 miles), a high number of stops, and lower average driving speeds compared to other delivery vocations. Total cost of ownership for conventional diesel Class 3 to 6 vehicles used in last mile applications were estimated to be approximately between 282 and 305thousanddollars,withthecostofnegativehealthimpactsrangingfrom305 thousand dollars, with the cost of negative health impacts ranging from 38 to $64 thousand dollars over the vehicle lifetime. The results show that battery electric freight vehicles are cost competitive with conventional diesel vehicles, particularly for smaller (Class 3) light commercial vehicles. Available financial incentives were sufficient to offset additional purchase and fuel expenses, leading to lower total costs of ownership.
Article
In this contribution, we assess the traditional last mile delivery concept and a framework with commercial parking bays for carriers in terms of their sustainability value for urban stakeholders. We evaluate the potential advantages and disadvantages of commercial parking bays and provide routing solutions based on the given context and stakeholder objectives. To ensure the needs of the stakeholders and the possibility of a near future implementation in the dynamic real-world system, we chose a combined approach of simulation and mathematical optimization, which allows us to investigate the concept efficiently and with a high reliability. By means of an agent-based simulation model as well as a mixed-integer linear model, we establish a heuristic routing solution for minimizing both emissions and delivery durations. We consider different scenarios in which customers are visited in a delivery radius, around a specific commercial parking bay. Outside this radius, delivery operations are conducted through second-row parking activities. Our results for the area of investigation show that the investigated scenario featuring a 200-m delivery radius around the parking bays has a 29.8% emission savings potential compared to traditional parcel delivery procedures. Moreover, optimizing the delivery routes with our green vehicle routing approach has indicated an additional savings potential of 26.4% in terms of delivery duration and 16.4% in terms of emission output for traditional parcel deliveries. Concerning the individual evaluation of the logistics context, our results indicate that dedicated commercial parking bays could be attractive to most urban stakeholders when employed utilizing a hybrid approach, combining traditional delivery activities with commercial parking bay fulfillment.
Article
Over the past few years, consumers have prioritized cost and speed over sustainability when referring to ecommerce decisions, ignoring the impact of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with last-mile distribution of the purchased products. There are numerous research calls to enhance our understanding about such a phenomenon. To help address this gap, this work investigates how motivated B2C (business-to-consumer) e-consumers are to prioritize sustainability over speed (delivery time) and cost in their orders. To do that, a survey was applied to 421 respondents, and results showed that delivery speed was the most important purchase criterion to consumers, followed by delivery cost, lastly, environmental information. The potential for consumer flexibilization was greater to delivery speed over cost. Demographic characteristics (gender, age, wage, and education) influenced the motivation to give priority to last-mile deliveries linked to sustainability. Also the delivery speed sacrifice accepted by consumers depends on the purchase order (type of product): categories of products, such as fashion and accessories and sport and leisure are more accepted over health/cosmetics/perfumery or food and beverages. Results also suggest that there is potential to educate e-consumers when purchasing online by helping them revise their priorities with the help of spreading environmental information.
Article
In the literature, city logistics in terms of last mile delivery on the e-commerce market is quite new area of research that is not thoroughly investigated. It can be observed that there are many papers discussing various topics from the perspective of different groups of stakeholders such as residents, governments, shippers, receivers, transport companies (CEP), and others. However, there is no holistic approach covering the presented field of research. Therefore, the paper’s purpose is identification of trends in sustainable last mile delivery on e-commerce market in cities from the perspective of various stakeholders. The research method that serves the paper’s purpose is systematic literature review in the above-presented field performed through traditional method and machine learning (VOSviewer). In order to conduct critical analysis of published sources, the Web of Science and Scopus databases were applied. The paper's added value is a comprehensive approach to sustainable city logistics of last mile delivery that includes all stakeholders' perspectives and the identification of trends in this area. During the critical literature analysis, authors identified the relations between stakeholders, the fields of the research, and the trends for developing sustainable last mile delivery on the e-commerce market. It should be noted, that recent articles discuss newer technological and organization solutions, such as IoT, autonomous vehicles, crowd-shipping, parcel lockers, and concentrate on the behavior analysis of e-customers.
Article
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted retail and accelerated the trend towards electronic commerce. This study explores the reasons for and the implications of this shift. Our study builds on the consumer behavior literature, emerging COVID-19 research, and the environmentally imposed constraints perspective to describe how online purchasing behavior evolved during the COVID-19 crisis. The objective is to better understand how consumers use e-commerce to react to, cope with and adapt to periods of environmentally imposed constraints. Based on multiple sources including transaction and search data from a major French online retailer, we describe how consumer behavior evolves during such stressful life events as COVID-19. Our results support the usefulness of the multi-perspective react-cope-adapt framework of constrained consumer behavior in an online environment.
Article
The e-commerce boom has increased the complexity of last-mile logistics operations in urban environments. In this context, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as delivery drones, and ground autonomous delivery devices (GADDs) show great potentialities. The objective of this paper is to provide strategic insights to adequately match these autonomous technologies with some given characteristics of cities and help define relevant decision variables. Using continuous approximation equations, the operations costs as well as the externalities induced by a) GADDs in association with an urban consolidation center (UCC) and b) truck-launched UAVs are estimated. Then, the developed mathematical formulations are applied in two different use cases: a part of the Paris suburbs (France) and the historical center of Barcelona (Spain). In less dense and larger service regions such as the Paris suburbs, truck-launched delivery drones seem more suitable to reduce the carriers’ operations costs. In denser neighborhoods such as the Barcelona historical center, GADDs are expected to be more economically profitable. In both use cases, GADDs would generate less externalities. Finally, considering the high uncertainty of some input parameters, a sensitivity analysis of the models is done.
Article
Purpose To increase sustainability of their products and enable new business opportunities, manufacturers explore servitization in consumer markets. Yet, the literature has not addressed this development. This study is one of the first to investigate the challenges and benefits for manufacturers and their supply chains when engaging in business-to-consumer (B2C) servitization. Design/methodology/approach The study explores two unique cases of manufacturers of complex consumer products that aim to extend their service offerings to the end-users. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews, observations and secondary data. Findings First, the authors identify two factors as prerequisites for a servitized set-up: internal collaboration within the manufacturer and product characteristics (e.g. product complexity). Second, the authors identify the network as an important factor for B2C servitization, which includes the triadic set-up between manufacturer, installer and consumer. Third, the authors identify moderating institutional settings, such as regulations and consumer needs. Originality/value This research elaborates existing B2B servitization theory into an empirically informed theoretical framework for B2C contexts. It expands the view on servitization by introducing the network perspective to service a large number of geographically dispersed customers.
Article
Supply chains in general and last-mile logistics in particular, have been disrupted due to COVID-19. Though several innovative last-mile logistics solutions have been proposed in the past, they possess certain limitations, especially during COVID-19 motivating the need for an alternative last-mile logistics solution. We present a review of literature related to last-mile logistics and supply chain disruptions to identify the limitations of existing last-mile delivery practices during COVID-19. Using a stylized analytical model, we then propose that “mobile warehouse” can be an effective solution to last-mile logistics issues faced during COVID-19 and beyond under certain conditions. A mobile warehouse is a truck dedicated to a particular geographical location and carries the inventory of various products based on the estimated demand requirements for these products in that geographical location. We provide the condition under which the B2C e-commerce providers find it profitable to adopt a truck as a mobile warehouse to sell high demand items quickly.
Article
Many logistics service providers are now adjusting their business service strategies to satisfy consumers’ higher demands and expectations. An automated parcel locker for self-pickup is one of the options; however, there is currently no smart locker service available in Thailand. This study integrates resource matching theory, innovation diffusion theory, and theory of planned behavior to clarify Thai consumers’ intention to utilize smart lockers. The data for this study were received from 302 participants living in Thailand. Convenience, reliability, privacy security, compatibility, relative advantage, complexity, perceived behavioral control, and attitude were included in the questionnaire to test if they were significant determinants of consumers’ intention to use smart lockers. The results reveal that convenience, reliability, privacy security, compatibility, relative advantage, complexity, perceived behavioral control, and attitude influence Thai consumers’ intention to use smart lockers. This study contributes to the literature on combining resource matching theory, innovation diffusion theory, and theory of planned behavior; this enriches theoretical research on self-service technologies in last-mile logistics delivery, and also provides insights for consumer behavioral research.
Article
Two-tier city logistics systems are playing a very important role nowadays in the management of urban freight activities. Although several city authorities have promoted different measures to foster the implementation of small urban consolidation centers in a two-tier system, only a few authors have addressed the joint problem of operating these facilities and providing services to customers. We show how the problem can be modeled as a new variant of the bin packing, for which we provide a mixed integer programming formulation and two heuristics that are shown to be quite effective in solving efficiently and to near optimality the problem. The application of our approach on real data from the city of Turin puts into highlight the superiority of the consolidation approach, including the bundle of goods from different providers, stockholding and other value-added logistics services, over the classical single-tier approach. In addition, the paper provides a thorough analysis of some emerging aspects of the on-demand economy, as the consideration of customers’ preferences and the integration of multiple delivery options. The managerial insights coming from this work will be part of the new Logistics and Mobility Plan to be activated in 2022 in the Piedmont region.
Article
Purpose The purpose of this article is to discuss the role of operations management in society. The article detects trends, raises critical questions to operations management research and articulates a research agenda to increase the value of such research in addressing societal problems. Design/methodology/approach This paper evaluates the papers presented at the EurOMA 2019 conference to detect trends and discuss the contributions of operations management research to society. It further goes to identify gaps in the research agenda. Findings The article finds several important streams of research in operations management: sustainable operations and supply chains, health care and humanitarian operations, innovation, digitalisation and 4.0, risk and resilience. It highlights new trends such as circular economy research and problematises when to stop implementing innovation and how to address and report their potential failure. Importantly, it shows how it is not just a question of offshoring vs reshoring but of constant change in manufacturing that operations management addresses. Originality/value The article highlights not just novel research areas but also gaps in the research agenda where operations management seeks to add value to society.
Article
Purpose This paper, a pathway, aims to provide research guidance for investigating sustainability in supply chains in a post-COVID-19 environment. Design/methodology/approach Published literature, personal research experience, insights from virtual open forums and practitioner interviews inform this study. Findings COVID-19 pandemic events and responses are unprecedented to modern operations and supply chains. Scholars and practitioners seek to make sense of how this event will make us revisit basic scholarly notions and ontology. Sustainability implications exist. Short-term environmental sustainability gains occur, while long-term effects are still uncertain and require research. Sustainability and resilience are complements and jointly require investigation. Research limitations/implications The COVID-19 crisis is emerging and evolving. It is not clear whether short-term changes and responses will result in a new “normal.” Adjustment to current theories or new theoretical developments may be necessary. This pathway article only starts the conservation – many additional sustainability issues do arise and cannot be covered in one essay. Practical implications Organizations have faced a major shock during this crisis. Environmental sustainability practices can help organizations manage in this and future competitive contexts. Social implications Broad economic, operational, social and ecological-environmental sustainability implications are included – although the focus is on environmental sustainability. Emergent organizational, consumer, policy and supply chain behaviors are identified. Originality/value The authors take an operations and supply chain environmental sustainability perspective to COVID-19 pandemic implications; with sustainable representing the triple bottom-line dimensions of environmental, social and economic sustainability; with a special focus on environmental sustainability. Substantial open questions for investigation are identified. This paper sets the stage for research requiring rethinking of some previous tenets and ontologies.
Article
With the rapid development of information and communication technologies, platform retailing has developed rapidly in recent years. The ensuing explosive growth of express packing boxes has created a considerable environmental impact. To reduce environmental pollution, in recent years, many retail platforms have begun to encourage consumers to recycle packing boxes since most of the packing boxes can still be used after one-time delivery. In this paper, we develop an analytical model to explore how the different delivery strategies of a platform affect packaging recycling, the platform’s profit and the environmental impact. We consider three typical delivery models: the express location model (EL), the home delivery model (HD) and the express cabinet model (EC). The optimal pricing and subsidy strategies under the three models are obtained. We also explore how consumer heterogeneities (valuation and transportation costs) affect the platform’s operations and consumers’ purchasing and recycling behaviors. The results show that none of the three strategies is dominant. In addition, we identify the conditions under which delivery model the platform performs best. We find that consumer surplus has a similar property to the platform’s profit, and the platform and consumers can achieve a win-win outcome in most cases. Finally, the HD and EL models are usually more beneficial to the environment since it is more convenient for consumers to recycle packing boxes under both models.
Article
Single-use plastic (SUP) being a versatile material, is adopted as an alternate to traditional materials specifically for the use in food packaging due to its inherent characteristics like high durability, inertness, and protecting ability but has become a curse for living being today due to its random usage and unplanned rejection to nature. Mostly plastics used in packaging of beverages, fresh meats, fruits and vegetables are under concern today. Single-use packages result in generation of several billion tons of garbage till date, which pollutes the environment. At the immediate past, it has come to light that micro plastics obtained due to slow degradation of SUP present in oceans, are also being consumed by marine organisms such as fishes and shellfish species which disturbs the marine life extensively. Hence, finding right strategy to mitigate the plastic waste related issues has becoming inevitable today. This review paper briefs various strategies undertaken worldwide to mitigate the pollution due to generation of plastic waste. Various notable impact of adopted strategies and recent innovations to replace the SUP products are also discussed and in view of this a roadmap is also suggested which can be used to achieve the milestone of Zero Plastic Waste.
Article
Consumer demand for short delivery windows has driven companies to compete for faster shipping to clients. Recently, Amazon and Walmart along with other major companies have started offering same-day delivery. That translates into not using full truckload capacities, requiring more frequent dispatch, and in turn, increases transportation cost. However, inefficient routes are not only more expensive for the shipper but they are also more carbon-intensive. In this context, and from an operative level, we analyze the environmental impact of inbound logistics caused by fast shipping. We create a discrete-event simulation model to understand and compare the effect that certain parameters (i.e., delivery windows, inventory management policies, truck type) have on sustainability inbound logistics. We validate this model with the largest retailer in Mexico in order to analyze how sustainable fast shipping actually is and how to reduce its environmental impact. Results from the simulation model show that fast shipping produces significantly higher CO2 emissions since it imposes a challenge for cargo consolidation. We found that fast-shipping increases both total CO2 emissions and costs up to 15% and 68%, respectively.