LOGISTICS DURING THE CORONA CRISIS
Corona pandemic promotes digitisation among transport service providers
Bordesholm, 1 October 2019
CHAPTER 1
Exponentially growing package volumes
With lockdown, social distancing rules and new hygiene guidelines, consumer behavior has shifted unexpectedly quickly this year. Online retail benefits from this above average. Due to contact restrictions and curfews, the demand for home entertainment products increased in particular. Technical devices for communication from home, sporting goods, small electronics for personal hygiene and medical products are also experiencing a boom, as is the online food retail.
"E-commerce established itself as an additional supply infrastructure in the second quarter", the managing director of the BEVH (Federal Association of E-Commerce and Mail Order Germany e.V.), Christoph Wenk-Fischer, summarized the results of a BEVH study* published in early July.
A Kantar study** came to a similar conclusion in April of this year: 20 percent of the consumers surveyed stated that they shop less at brick-and-mortar retailers. 9 percent confirmed that they shop more online and 32 percent of consumers expected to increase their share of online purchases even after the Corona crisis.
But the pandemic not only affects order volumes, but also all e-commerce and transport processes in which people are involved.
[ ... ] Kantar-Study: 20 percent of the consumers surveyed stated that they shop less at brick-and-mortar retailers. 9 percent confirmed that they shop more online and 32 percent of consumers expected to increase their share of online purchases even after the Corona crisis.
Delays occurring at the moment have a wide variety of causes, such as the necessary compliance with distancing rules and other protective measures, increased sick leave or even outbreak clusters. Today it is difficult to foresee how both the Corona pandemic and online buying behavior will continue to develop. However, there is much to suggest that even if the pandemic were completely over, online business would continue to move at a higher level than before.
Even after the first easing of restrictions, there were signs that the population remained cautious in many cases, was reluctant to take advantage of brick-and-mortar shop offers again and that the urge to order online did not immediately cease.
Sources:
*Press release of BEVH
More information on this topic
The following article is also part of our reports on the effects of the corona crisis on logistics:
CORONA CRISIS ACCELERATES STRUCTURAL CHANGE
Digital solutions support logistics companies in the competition for e-commerce partnerships
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