Online commerce has exploded in such a way that logistics services are not enough. Companies are hiring staff at a fast pace, but they are not managing to meet deadlines. Companies with physical stores that have exceeded their expectations to sell online, and are struggling to effectively serve a public that trusts them.
It is likely that during the confinement you have found online sales sites with announcements of delays in deliveries, priority for other groups, etc. This is mainly due to the lack of foresight in a logistical system of order preparation and subsequent shipment (or collection). Selling is also shipping, and that stretch seemed complete enough with a fairly large number of delivery companies.
Amazon’s solution is to have an army of delivery companies working part-time, with plenty of work. Amazon’s secret is its logistics (among other things) that they send the parcel at a very low cost and in record time. If El Corte Inglés, Carrefour, Inditex, … want to improve, they must provide a service of equal or better quality, before the brand image is damaged.
Why do we prefer to buy certain items from physical companies?
For many reasons:
-Customer service
-After Sales Service
-Warranty
-Simpler returns
-See, touch the article
Those reasons can be very important because they are what the customer appreciates above an online brand alone. They must meet those needs because that is their competitive advantage, that is, everything. Amazon had no brand and did not want to compete on competitive advantages that were consolidated in those companies. That’s the same reason Uber used to compete with taxis.
We want to buy online, but we want to feel like we can call someone to complain or ask for information on how an order is going, or return a shipment,… that’s what motivates us to make purchases on trusted physical sites.
The proposals of the future:
-An operational logistics centre with a much larger capacity.
-Use the physical stores as collection points, or purchase with subsequent shipment.
-To promote this type of purchase, as a competitor of the brand.
-Cross-selling: insurance, deferrals,… everything that is already important in physical sales.
-Offers: if you buy online you will have an additional discount. You have to prioritize the productivity of one system over another, so that the competition does not take advantage of the fact that the costs of one system are lower than others and get more sales.
