E-Commerce and the Last Mile in Urban Goods Distribution: Criticalities and the Need for Change

Abstract

The disruptive innovation of e-commerce on incoming and outgoing flows has led to a marked increase in traffic volumes over the so-called last mile. This increase has inevitably impacted urban infrastructures ill prepared for such higher flows and related negative externalities. Moreover, fierce competition and ever more complex customer demand weigh on firms' logistic chains in the form of increased delivery charges and operational inefficiencies simply to preserve market share. This situation is likely to worsen as e-commerce continues to expand and uncertainty over Covid 19 persists. The last mile is a rapidly changing yet problematic link in the logistic chain since: - customers expect free and fast delivery;- logistic companies need to satisfy increasingly demanding customer delivery needs;- urban roads, already overloaded with flows of people and traditional goods, face significant increases in the size of these flows together with the rapid speed of change;- these complex changes are not a priority on policy makers' agenda. All these changes will transform the concept of the city. The purpose of this paper is to provide an updated overview of the current condition for urban deliveries as well as to analyse challenges and identify opportunities for future improvements. This paper reviews recent developments in e-commerce and the urban freight transport solutions used. Specifically, the work provides a complete overview of the critical factors affecting e-Commerce's last mile (failed deliveries, returns, packaging, role of customer satisfaction). The paper also highlights gaps in current research on the topic (i.e. data collection on load factors, externalities, warehousing space and related impacts) as well as within the political agenda (i.e. regulation for efficiency in delivery, planning of collection points and their accessibility, green urban policies, consumer environmental awareness).