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This research examines the impact of e-commerce on urban last-mile distribution through a comprehensive analysis of scientific studies. A corpus of 317 publications spanning two decades was reviewed, identifying 111 pertinent sources. Utilizing bibliometric analysis and systematic assessment, the study reveals the effects of e-commerce on last-mile delivery comprehensively. Key findings encompass environmental, economic, social, and technological impacts. Notably, while existing research has explored these aspects, the spatial impact of e-commerce remains inadequately addressed. This paper bridges this gap, contributing to the discussion on freight sustainability by elucidating current trends and outlining future research directions in last-mile e-commerce delivery. By providing insights into prevailing research trends and outlining potential avenues for further exploration, this article enriches scholarly discourse on freight sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the impact of e-commerce on urban last-mile distribution through a comprehensive analysis of scientific studies. A corpus of 317 publications spanning two decades was reviewed, identifying 111 pertinent sources. Utilizing bibliometric analysis and systematic assessment, the study reveals the effects of e-commerce on last-mile delivery comprehensively. Key findings encompass environmental, economic, social, and technological impacts. Notably, while existing research has explored these aspects, the spatial impact of e-commerce remains inadequately addressed. This paper bridges this gap, contributing to the discussion on freight sustainability by elucidating current trends and outlining future research directions in last-mile e-commerce delivery. By providing insights into prevailing research trends and outlining potential avenues for further exploration, this article enriches scholarly discourse on freight sustainability.

The authors review the literature on last mile delivery logistics within commercial and humanitarian supply chains from 2010 to the end of 2021. The scope of the last mile, including last mile logistics, last mile distribution, and last-mile mile delivery, is covered. A unifying terminology of the major concepts in this field and a bibliometric analysis are provided. Based on the analysis, the authors further classify and discuss the literature into three clusters: humanitarian relief, commercial logistics, and emerging technologies. Within each generated cluster, research gaps and current trends are identified. Future research directions are suggested based on this literature review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic, which began in mid-2020, has driven a significant shift towards online buying and selling through E-commerce platforms. Notably, Shopee has experienced a surge in website visits as a result. To cater to this demand, Shopee relies on Last Mile Delivery, facilitated by their service called Shopee Xpress. In order to maintain a competitive edge in the crowded shipping services market, a thorough analysis and evaluation of customer perceptions regarding Shopee Xpress' expedition services have been conducted. The research employs two key methodologies: Logistics Service Quality (LSQ) and Important Performance Analysis (IPA). Data was collected through a questionnaire structured around five variables and fifteen LSQ indicators. Among these variables, the Image variable emerged as the one that best aligned with customer expectations and actual performance. The IPA approach further yielded a prioritized mapping of areas that require evaluation and enhancement. This mapping is based on indicators' relative importance. From this prioritization, a series of proposed enhancements have been formulated for Shopee Xpress. In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed a surge in online transactions, prompting E-commerce platforms like Shopee to adapt. Shopee Xpress, the platform's Last Mile Delivery service, became pivotal in meeting this demand. The research's amalgamation of LSQ and IPA methodologies provided valuable insights into customer perceptions. The resulting identification of the Image variable as the most significant alignment between expectations and performance underscores its importance. The IPA-driven prioritization of indicators also paved the way for targeted improvements, shaping a roadmap for Shopee Xpress' ongoing enhancement.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on rural e-customers’ preferences in terms of last mile delivery and products purchased via the Internet. This paper is based on the theory of last mile delivery (with a strong focus on the methods of delivery) and customers’ preferences. It combines both theories to fulfil the paper’s goal. In the paper, the literature review and multivariate data analysis of rural e-customers in Poland were used. The hypothesis states that there is a requirement for different last mile delivery solutions in rural areas than in urban areas in Poland. The research was carried out on a sample of 1071 adult Poles, who are residents of rural areas, using the standardized and structured computer-assisted interview (CAWI). The authors used the chi-square independence test, the Student t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), regression models, and logistic models. The research shows that more than 60% of respondents living in rural areas order goods purchased online with a home delivery method and that online shopping preferences’ changes are not so significant after the occurrence of COVID-19. Both before and after the pandemic, rural e-customers made online purchases most often 2–3 times a month. Nevertheless, some differences in the preferences of rural e-customers in terms of last mile delivery and purchasing preference can be seen considering their age, gender, or family size. The survey found that smaller families were more likely to choose free home delivery with a free return after the pandemic. The research presented in this paper provides essential information for courier companies, stores, and online platforms alike. Knowledge of preferences and their changes after the occurrence of COVID-19 can support the reorganization of last mile delivery to meet the needs of e-customers and to adapt to the increasing demands for sustainable transportation.

AbstractGeneration Zers are digital natives who may be early adopters of drone delivery services for e-commerce. Therefore, e-commerce vendors must understand what causes Gen Zers to believe, desire, and intend to adopt drone delivery services. Gen Zers were surveyed regarding their decision-making processes using the DITTO research framework (Diversity, Individualism, Teamwork, Technology, and Organizational Support) and belief-desire-intention theory. A survey was conducted with 83 Gen Zers from the United States, and data was analyzed using multilinear regression analysis. Many important implications can be drawn from the analysis results. Before Gen Zers adopt drone delivery services, the “seeing is believing” moment appears to be essential, according to the analysis. Moreover, e-commerce vendors should emphasize drone delivery’s relative advantages in terms of speed and environmental protection. Based on our findings, Gen Zers are rational decision-makers when it comes to adopting drone delivery services. To motivate Gen Zers to use drone delivery services, it is imperative to help them develop the belief and increase their desire.

Society, companies and institutions are involved in a digital transformation that can be pervaded in various industries or sectors, and this also applies to communication, sales and distribution channels. The possibilities of e-commerce have also increased and world trade has been further developed. In 2020, more than two billion people bought goods or services over the Internet. Customer satisfaction depends on the solution of the last mile process, the method of picking up shipments as well as the time and place of picking up the shipment. The most common forms of off-premises delivery are automated parcel locker or machine (APM) and pick-up and drop-off delivery (PUDO). The aim of the paper is to analyse the level of the PUDO and APM network in European countries and in the V4 countries with regard to the size of the country and the population. For this purpose, it was necessary to focus on determining the population per 1 PUDO and the number of inhabitants per 1 APM in individual European countries and subsequently in the V4 countries. The obtained data were processed and recalculated in Excel. The results showed that within European countries the best values were achieved by Finland with 526 inhabitants per 1 PUDO and Spain with 188 inhabitants per 1 APM. Regarding the V4 countries, the Czech Republic achieved the best value in the case of inhabitants on PUDO with 729 inhabitants per 1 PUDO and in the case of APM Poland with 3,184 inhabitants per 1 APM.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on rural e-customers' preferences in terms of last mile delivery and products purchased via the Internet. This paper is based on the theory of last mile delivery (with a strong focus on the methods of delivery) and customers' preferences. It combines both theories to fulfil the paper's goal. In the paper, the literature review and multivariate data analysis of rural e-customers in Poland were used. The hypothesis states that there is a requirement for different last mile delivery solutions in rural areas than in urban areas in Poland. The research was carried out on a sample of 1071 adult Poles, who are residents of rural areas, using the standardized and structured computer-assisted interview (CAWI). The authors used the chi-square independence test, the Student t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), regression models, and logistic models. The research shows that more than 60% of respondents living in rural areas order goods purchased online with a home delivery method and that online shopping preferences' changes are not so significant after the occurrence of COVID-19. Both before and after the pandemic, rural e-customers made online purchases most often 2–3 times a month. Nevertheless, some differences in the preferences of rural e-customers in terms of last mile delivery and purchasing preference can be seen considering their age, gender, or family size. The survey found that smaller families were more likely to choose free home delivery with a free return after the pandemic. The research presented in this paper provides essential information for courier companies, stores, and online platforms alike. Knowledge of preferences and their changes after the occurrence of COVID-19 can support the reorganization of last mile delivery to meet the needs of e-customers and to adapt to the increasing demands for sustainable transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The remarkable explosion of e-commerce has marked the latest years of different industries and put forward a higher requirement for the last mile delivery. The last mile delivery is one of the most complex, costly, and inefficient processes along the entire logistics fulfillment chain in an e-commerce context. Its corresponding risks are major contributors to delivery failure. This work proposes a comprehensive framework on risk identification and analysis in the last mile delivery to support delivery planning. Risks were deduced from available literature, and others were induced through semi-structured interviews with experts in the field. Risks are categorized and the relative probability and severity of individual risks are determined. This study adopts a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) model to identify the interdependency among risks and rank them, as the conventional ranking methods fail to take interdependency into account. The results indicate that privacy concerns, IT, and natural disasters are the most critical risks. This study will aid logistics service providers to ultimately deciding the solutions of last mile delivery that need to be utilized by prioritizing last mile delivery possible risks to increase their competitiveness and market share and minimize delivery costs.

Residents of rural areas buy products in the e-commerce market that are delivered to their homes (home deliveries) or to collection points (out-of-home deliveries). This poses last mile delivery challenges, which are of increasing interest to researchers. While urban research is widespread, a smaller number of rural studies are noticeable. The study aims to assess the factors differentiating the inhabitants of rural areas as to the familiarity and use of various methods of delivery of products purchased via the Internet and the reasons for choosing the preferred delivery methods. The paper uses the simplified SLR method in the literature section and multivariate data analysis in the empirical section. It contributes to the existing research in the form of the analysis of rural e-customers' preferences for choosing a particular delivery method or parcel collection method when out-of-home delivery is conducted. It indirectly focuses on the environmental attitudes that may lead to the sustainable transition through reducing CO2 emissions while last mile delivery is performed. Regardless of choosing price or convenience over sustainable behavior for Polish rural e-customers, their preferences in last mile deliveries are focused on more eco-friendly methods of delivery. Such behavior is a good beginning for a more sustainable transition towards energy saving in Polish rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The revolution of technology and the rapid evolution of the digital world had a significant effect on the development and expansion of e-commerce. Last mile delivery, for which different app-based delivery services have recently emerged, is a new area of research that is not thoroughly addressed. Delivery service is one of the supporting platforms of e-commerce. One of the delivery issues is that many customers experience difficulties in communicating and coordinating with the logistics companies responsible for the delivery service. This challenge is emphasized in this study which introduces a new system to facilitate communication and coordination between customers and logistics companies by using one identity and one interface. This paper is a programming-based study, as the proposed system evaluates a website to serve logistics companies as well as designs an application (app) to serve the customers of logistics companies. Swift, a powerful open-source and object-oriented programming language, and the mark-up language (HTML) were used to build the last mile delivery system. In addition, Firebase, a cloud-hosted real-time database built on Google infrastructure, were used to develop the system. By increasing the level of customer satisfaction and reducing delivery failure rates, this system will eventually increase the prosperity of e-commerce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The grocery sector has transitioned into an omnichannel operating mode, allowing consumers to buy online and have their order delivered to their chosen address. The last mile delivery service leads to avoidable inefficiencies such as low asset utilisation and repeated trips to nearby neighbourhoods, increasing vehicle emissions, traffic, and operational costs. Combining historical order and delivery data of an online grocery retailer with secondary data publicly available on other retailers, we employ Monte Carlo simulation to estimate grocery home delivery demand per 1-hour time windows. We use the simulation output as an input to daily vehicle routing problem instances under independent and collaborative last mile delivery operation to estimate the impact of collaboration. Our analyses show distance savings of around 17% and route reduction of around 22%. These results can support policies incentivising vehicle and infrastructure sharing settings and decoupling the last mile delivery from the core grocery retail services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For various industries worldwide, recent years have been defined by the remarkable growth of e-commerce. Enabled by the Internet, retailers can reach more customers, spread much further in the distribution chain, and optimize their resources. In the new market environment, customer experience has become a source of competitive advantage. This study investigates the role of last mile delivery in the customer's e-retail experience. A quantitative methodology was used, which incorporated a survey that was conducted in Sweden and measured participants' most recent e-retail experience. The results indicate that the last mile delivery experience mediates the relationship between the customer's perception of the online shopping experience and customer satisfaction. These conclusions provide ground for further thorough investigations of the role of last mile delivery in the e-retail context and support e-retailers in increasing their customers' satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the growth of e-commerce around the world. Especially in developing countries, assisted home delivery (AHD) is the main way for people to receive their goods purchased online. This delivery policy can result in delivery failure when the consumer is not at home and, consequently, in greater externalities that impact all stakeholders in last mile logistics. This paper aims to evaluate the operating costs of delivery lockers (DLs) through agent-based modeling and simulation. A total of 84 scenarios were simulated alternating the DLs usage rate and different delivery attempt policies. The results show that the most impacting system costs are time, external and re-delivery costs. The implementation of DLs and the exclusion of the three-attempt delivery together can reduce these costs and increase net profit by up to 79.1%. Therefore, DLs have economic potential for last mile logistics operations. However, this solution must be accompanied by incentive policies resulting from stakeholder engagement. We hope that this study contributes to a greater understanding of DLs as a sustainable solution for last mile e-commerce deliveries, helping decision makers in urban freight transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A comprehensive approach to sustainable city logistics of last mile delivery from stakeholders' perspectives was presented. • Seven research topics on sustainable last mile delivery on e-commerce market in cities were identified. • The need of changing consumers' expectations regarding last mile delivery on e-commerce market was identified. • Trends and further directions of the research on sustainable last mile delivery on e-commerce market were indicated. In the literature, city logistics in terms of last mile delivery on the e-commerce market is quite new area of research that is not thoroughly investigated. It can be observed that there are many papers discussing various topics from the perspective of different groups of stakeholders such as residents, governments, shippers, receivers, transport companies (CEP), and others. However, there is no holistic approach covering the presented field of research. Therefore, the paper's purpose is identification of trends in sustainable last mile delivery on e-commerce market in cities from the perspective of various stakeholders. The research method that serves the paper's purpose is systematic literature review in the above-presented field performed through traditional method and machine learning (VOSviewer). In order to conduct critical analysis of published sources, the Web of Science and Scopus databases were applied. The paper's added value is a comprehensive approach to sustainable city logistics of last mile delivery that includes all stakeholders' perspectives and the identification of trends in this area. During the critical literature analysis, authors identified the relations between stakeholders, the fields of the research, and the trends for developing sustainable last mile delivery on the e-commerce market. It should be noted, that recent articles discuss newer technological and organization solutions, such as IoT, autonomous vehicles, crowd-shipping, parcel lockers, and concentrate on the behavior analysis of e-customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E -commerce is a rapidly growing and evolving sector. The sector is however struggling with organising its last mile deliveries in order to meet the sustainability requirements, both economically and environmentally. Multiple studies have compared deliveries to collection points with deliveries to residential home addresses in sustainability terms. The variety in results indicates that these studies are bound to local parameters (such as regulations, drop densities, collection point networks). Consequently, their results cannot be generalised or transferred to other contexts. In this research, we compare deliveries to stores serving as collection points and homes for online ordered non-food products in Belgium. The solutions are simulated with agent-based transport model TRABAM. The results are evaluated based on their generated external costs and differentiated according to three area types: urban, urbanised and rural areas. Considering the case-specific density of the collection points, the results indicate that home deliveries are preferred in rural and urbanised areas when considering the sustainability impact solely. In urban areas, collection point deliveries are more sustainable. • Sustainability analysis of last mile deliveries of retail in Belgium via agent-based model • Comparison between urban, urbanised and rural • Comparison between homedeliveries and collection point deliveries • Homedeliveries should be preferred in rural and urbanised areas. • Collection point deliveries are slightly more sustainable in urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E-grocery is becoming more and more popular, involving both pure e-commerce players and physical stores in its development and sales. As a consequence, the last mile delivery model has been heavily modified, with ambiguous final impact on the environment. This paper identifies the key elements germane to e-grocery (demand and supply), discusses e-grocery development and investigates the challenges ahead. In more detail, it presents the results of a stated preference survey on consumers' channel choices for the grocery market. The survey was carried out in Shanghai (China) in order to investigate different purchase attributes, such as product and delivery service price, product range, lead time, time window and travel time. The paper identifies heterogeneous reactions to alternative service configurations, which allows to estimate market shares for e-grocery, with the in-store option as a reference. Policy implications and operational solutions to improve the sustainability of this renewed last mile delivery model are thus proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]