How Crodsoucred Logistics Enhances Last Miledelivery Success Paper Example

Section 1: Introduction

1.1 Overview

Crowdsourced elovery is the method of otrder fulfillment in which the local bnetwork or local couriers are enlistyed to deliver packages to the customers from the retailer (seller's) hub to the customer doorstep with the aim of overcoming inefficiency, and cost issues related wuith last mile delivery. Over the last decade, technological advances have contributed to the development and success of last mile delivery. Last mile deliveries refer to the movement of goods from the company's transpiration hub to the end udders or the final destination such as the customer residence. Crowdsourcing is one of the main components of -retails aimed at providing customers with a seamless shopping experience. Last mile delivery success has been enhanced by the Omnichannel retail whether the shopping is done online, or through a brick and mortar model. According to Perez (2018), last mile delivery is mainly focused on delivering the goods to the c customers faster, and in good condition.

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While crowdsourcing refers to sourcing model whereby the pool of service providers producers or producers is enlisted to fulfill customer orders on demand. Before the web 2.0, crowdsourcing was done offline and was often a laborious process. However, today, crowdsourcing is done online and it's enhanced by web 2.0 that aggregates internet users including service providers and producers (Banerjee et al., 2016). Crowdsourcing is done by less specific groups of people who have the goods and the means to meet the customer needs. Crowdsourcing has been associated with various advantages including lower costs, high speed, flexibility, scalability as well as unparalleled diversity (Banerjee et al. 2016). A better example of crowdsourcing includes Amazon Mechanical Turk that involves services providers from all over the world who provide clients with the services they need through the same platform. In a crowd, the different provider with different specialists can provide goods and services of the varied quality which mean that the customer has an advantage of a large variation to choose from (Cheng, 2015). User communication is enabled by the platforms and thus enhances the performance of the last mile delivery

Last mile deliveries can be costly and be challenging for retailers and producers that manager end to end logistics. However, with intelligent logistics, most companies especially retailers have leveraged the technological advances in achieving last mile success. Crowdsourcing can enhance last mile deliveries success by ensuring the customers' demands are delivered fast, and on demand, most companies that have achieved last mule success by crowdsourcing attribute their success to the reliability of the cheaper services (Dekkers, Mummery and Rabelink 2014). For example, companies such as UBER and Amazon leverage technological advanced to crowdsources the goods and services. Instead of having their warehouses in all aortas of the world, most of the retail companies have crowdsourced and established mini-warehouses in the producer's warehouses. As over 90% of the consumers have turned to the web as their main shipping channels, the nontraditional online segments have had to change their mode of operations. The grocery stores and all the conveniences stores have shifted their operations to the e-commerce to take advantage of the desired by the customers. There are many retailers that have turned to crowdsourcing as a way of enhancing last mile delivery because crowdsourcing enhances delivery success.

1.2 Problem statement

While last mile delivery premises a lot of advantages, there are also challenges associated with last mile deliveries. For example, many shoppers today buy online which means that the sellers have to use the online platform for order fulfillment. Amazon is one of the eliding retail outlets in the whole world that has levered the benefits associated with crowdsourcing to maximize customer experiences (Perez 2018). For example, the company has allowed entrepreneurs with cars to use their delivery technology and training to streamline their assets and services. Drivers in the Amazon Flex programs can lease cars they use for the delivery services. Most of the crowdsourced drivers can be shared by small business orders depending on their capability needs. Amazon uses a wide range of company's for its last mile deliveries including FedEx, UPS for its e-commerce package delivery (Sidak 2017). Five years ago, Amazon also contracted USPS to get the packages to its customers on time. Many brick and mortar companies are now doing home deliveries thanks to the last mile delivery bylines model that enables them to fulfill customer orders irrespective of the location

How crowdsourcing is helping to improve the troublesome last mile of e-commerce delivery

The study of commerce tends to push logistics businesses as well as their retail partners for the delivery of more parcels, speedy and faster delivery has arisen to become a major competitive advantage in the field associated with the activities involved. It is however quite unfortunate those companies rarely capitalize on such an opportunity as Amazon does. The retailer has gained popularity by considering its prime and the need to fulfill them (Yuen et al. 2018). Amazon is facing a stiff aspect of competition emerging from their logistics partners and its retail competitors who tend to explore new technologies and models targeted to meet the growing demand of consumers. The intervention is meant to ensure fast delivery to the consumers. Crowdsourced delivery has therefore gained significant popularity as it tends to leverage local and nonprofessional couriers who subsequently get the opportunity offer packages to customers at their places of residence usually efficient and may be achieved within an hour or less.

Crowd sourced delivery player in the United States. Adapted from Dolan (2018)

This model serves effectively in providing efficient services to the customers based on online deliveries. The model also intervenes considerably to the growing demands of the young consumers who express significant expectations influenced by the digital era in which they are brought up. A survey undertaken with the North American population has revealed that approximately 75% of the internet users are those aged between 23-27 years. This implies that same-day delivery can consider and react to this opportunity which would influence to become more loyal to the preferred brand of the retailer (Bagla 2012). The population made of the teenagers also demonstrated a similar capacity with interaction with the internet just like those below within the range of 20-30. It follows that being in touch with the youths is a potential strategy through which the online retailers can gain a considerable level of success.

The youths in this context are made of Gen Z and the younger Gen Y which are associated with the consumption which ultimately makes the basis of the bulk of shopping. This is expected to be experienced in the next decade as well since the Gen Z might constitute the largest generation by 2026. Besides, 25% of the online shoppers studied in a study have shown laxity in responding to the products which are not offered to them on the same-day delivery basis (Dai, Liu and Liu 2017). The growing demand may help the online retailers drive up the volumes of the same-day delivery to the account for approximately $200 billion in the US sales based on the online platforms. This is expected to influence the occurrence of the about 25% of the US e-commerce market e-commerce features by 2025. Currently, there many startups of crowdsourced delivery, like Inst-apart, Postmasters, and Deli have grown significantly across the globe, and are currently attracting several billions of dollars collectively in the given online investment (Yuen et al. 2018). It is Important to that each of the involve adopting slightly different ways of operation, however, their operational cultures consider a similar aspect of blueprint for executing the deliveries

Common features of the blueprint:

The placement of a crowdsourced delivery company's app, which can be the retailer or the customer, marks the beginning of the role of the couriers. At this point, the delivery is normally assigned to any one of the part-time couriers with the aid of the app. There are two options available for achieving the delivery; a courier has an option to bid and subsequently accept it or just get an automatic assignment in which the factor considered is the proximity to the location of pickup. Immediately an order is picked and packed the assigned courier is tasked to deliver it to the recipient by using their vehicle. The basis of "on-demand" can be used to inform the distinct stages of pickup and delivery, which implies that the customer services on the same occur right away or as scheduled for a given time window. The courier or recipient subsequently confirms that the order in question has been delivered safely. The courier is then entitled to the receipt of compensation which is attached to the delivery company.

Reserahc aims and obujective

The aim of this study is to examine the rekaitonship between last mile success and crowdsourced deliver. On the other hand, the objhectoves of the study include:

• To examine how crodsoucred logistics enhances last miledelivery success.
• To examine how companies that have crowdsoucred last mile deliver view crowsouicred lgostics.
• To investigate the metrics used in last mile delivery and how corwdsourcing enavbls the achievemht of these metrics
• To investigate the factors that drive companies to invest and devlop crowdsoirced delivery for last mile
• To examin whow crowdsourced delivery companies improve cost effciincies
• To make recomendaiton fro futhher reserach

Section 2: Literature Review

There is need to examine the rise of the model of crowdsourcing in the space of the last-mile delivery, which has been confirmed to be a crucial element of the logistics industry based on the rise of the commercial activities over the internet. The analysis in question should cover details on the crowdsourced deliveries, including the changes and benefits of using this model for the delivery of online orders. There is also the need for the provision of insights based on the criteria of improved minimization of the crowdsourced deliveries. It is also important to understand the capacity of the startups in question on a long-term basis the crowdsourced to play a considerable role in the last mile (Yuen et al. 2018). The ability of a given online retailer to fit in the process can be used to determine the role of crowdsourcing in the online business organization in question.

The challenges of last mile logistics & delivery technology solutions

Consumers have increasingly demonstrated expressed their interest in turning to the e-commerce based on the shopping needs and improved nature of the fulfillment of such needs. This has demonstrated the actual expectation of the form of the shopping experience in the near future. On this note, online retailers have a challenging task since they are expected to adjust effectively to fit the customer needs as competition has also risen significantly. Many have therefore strived to achieve the success level comparable to that of Amazon. To adapt to the emerging customer needs, business organizations are now struggling t develop and implement new aspects of technologies which would considerably influence the supply models positively as they try to minimize cost (Chen et al. 2018). However, an emerging problem of "same-day, last mile shipping" tends to affect their choices on the same (Yuen et al. 2018). The last mile delivery can be defined as the...