In 2019, e-commerce was again a massive growth driver for retail. There are more online orders than ever before. Beside the advantages of short delivery times, huge variety of products, simple comparison of offers and the convenience of online ordering, the voices for more sustainability in mail order are becoming more and more.
This is also shown by the results of the logistics study carried out by the german distributor association in October 2019, in which around 530 retailers were asked about various aspects relating to returns, shipping and packaging. In the previous year of 2018, only 26% of all respondents rated sustainability in packaging as “very important”. In the current study 2019, however, it was already 42%.
In this context, sustainability has different faces: CO2-neutral parcel delivery, the further use of returned items where possible, the use of reusable packaging and sustainable materials or the selection of the optimally suitable shipping container.
What the logistics study also shows is that retailers’ price sensitivity has increased in the past three years. In 2019, 59% of all retailers surveyed rated “low packaging costs” as very important, compared to 47% in 2016.
A very exciting field, in which there will certainly be many developments in the coming months and years. However, it is certain that data will play an increasingly important role for these developments in the future. Effective cross-supply chain optimization projects can only be effectively planned and successfully implemented with correct logistics master data.
Source:
Cf. Händlerbund, Logistik-Studie Retouren I Versand I Verpackungen, accessed 29.04.2020
URL: https://www.haendlerbund.de/de/downloads/logistik-studie-2019.pdf