Retail and e-commerce - November 2019

E-commerce market reports
Smithers discusses the fundamental questions regarding e-commerce packaging in a paper entitled ‘E-commerce Packaging-On the Crest of a Wave’. You can download the perspective paper after filling in your details.
E-commercewiki has published two reports from the Ecommerce Foundation, which provide a brief overview of the state of e-commerce in the regions China and Australia. You can download the light versions of the reports after registering.

Supply chain of e-commerce
The rapid growth of the delivery economy is pressuring companies to quickly address structural supply chain challenges that make it difficult for them to meet increasing customer demands, according to a new report from project44. You will receive the report by email after filling in your details.
Research at the University of Bamberg (in German) shows that almost 4% of the returned goods end up in the waste stream in the German online and mail order business. This corresponds to about 20 million articles per year. More information can be found here (in German).

Automation in E-commerce
L.E.K. Consulting has published a report (329 kB) entiteled ‘Ecommerce, Automation and the Future of Intralogistics’. The report looks at the impact of ecommerce on intralogistics automation and the effect this will have on the market, and explores the strategic choices companies must make to position themselves for the next phase of growth.
In the not too distant future, robots may be dispatched as last-mile home delivery vehicles - if they can find the door. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have now developed a new navigation method that may speed up autonomous last-mile delivery. The method doesn’t require mapping an area in advance. Instead, their approach enables a robot to use clues in its environment to plan out a route to its destination.

The future of retail
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has published a report (1.81 MB) entitled ‘The future of retail in city-centres’. The report provides a study of the retail sector, which is one of the biggest in Europe in terms of the number of enterprises active and individuals employed. The study aims to provide practical insights on revitalising small retailers in urban and rural areas.
Over the next five years, the share of mobile within online purchases will increase rapidly, according to the Consumer Survey, which GfK conducted in collaboration with ShoppingTomorrow (in Dutch). Half of the consumers expect to make the most online purchases with their smartphone in 2024. You can download the report after filling in your details.

NVC members receive this information with all the relevant links in the monthly NVC Members-only Update. If you have any questions, please contact us: info@nvc.nl, +31-(0)182-512411.