Marketing & Communication
During the one day event, speakers from renowned brands, solution providers and industry experts answered to some of the eCommerce and delivery issues ranging from customer expectations, to new solutions for more efficient delivery and the need for more sustainable delivery methods. Here are Urbantz’s takeaways from the TDC Global:
1. The industry is looking for solutions to adopt more sustainable practices: sustainability was the word of the day. The concern with reducing the impact of logistics in the environment – and life in cities – is leading industry players to find eco-friendly alternatives to their practices across the entire cycle. This is visible in the growing changes from packaging to eco ways of delivery with electric vehicles, bicycles or the usage of parcels lockers. The sustainability effort has a signifficant impact in the daily business as more and more customers aspire to have sustainable packaging and delivery methods in mind when choosing a vendor.
2. Adapting to the modern customer journeys is crucial: it’s already well known that customers’ demands regarding their shopping and delivery experience has changed in the past years. Today we talk about more complex customer journeys, more options for customers to choose from and the need to provide a seamless experience from purchase to delivery. Speakers at the TDC touched on a subject that resonates with most businesses: the fierce competition to retain customer loyalty. Companies seem to tackle the issue with investment in IT solutions all across the customer journey. Data usage and analysis is at the heart of the strategy, using new models to understand and customise the customer experience, and to optimise their operations – much like Urbantz does with its customers’ last mile operations.
3. Deliveries and warehouses are going local: the retail and delivery industries are coming together to solve an old problem: scarce city real estate. There are several interesting solutions being tested. All have in common the belief that bringing warehouses and fulfillment centers closer to the customer is better. One solution is to use city warehouses, empty offices or stores as small fulfilment and distribution centers, reducing significantly the time to deliver and the potential costs of the last mile. Another studied solution is to create common consolidation centers for distributors which can ensure proximity, efficiency and operational savings.
Byron Dunne, Urbantz’s General Manager for Northern Europe contributed to the conversation by presenting Urbantz to a full room. Byron Dunne explored the available solutions to achieve a sustainable last mile delivery without increasing costs.
Urbantz is an all-in-one last mile delivery platform, designed to respond to the delivery needs of retailers, logistics operators, field services providers and anyone looking for a SaaS delivery technology, with simplicity, real time visibility, flexibility and reliability. The cloud-based SaaS solution allows the management and monitoring of the whole delivery chain from the initial order to the final recipient, in one single platform.