Is Home Delivery Becoming a Thing of Past?
Yes, you heard it right. With e-commerce giants fast turning to automated parcel delivery or click and collect as a more cost-effective and convenient alternative to home delivery, the package delivery service in India is going through a paradigm shift.

The e-commerce revolution in the past decade has led to an increase in the numbers of home deliveries. As more consumers are buying online, the spike in home deliveries boosted the business of courier and other postal services. It has, however, shot up the logistic costs of online retail companies. On top of it, frequent missed deliveries are adding to the overall cost and reducing revenues. In fact, a major friction point for both retailers and consumers is the direct cost to retailers of failed first-time delivery. Let’s delve deeper.

What Statistics Say
A survey conducted in 2015 by the ‘Interactive Media in Retail Group’ (IMRG) revealed that nearly 50 per cent of respondents’ households may not have someone at home to receive package during normal delivery hours. Simply put, consumers don’t like waiting at home for a delivery. On the other hand, for e-commerce companies home deliveries, especially those involving failed attempts turn out to be an expensive proposition. Considering the hassles of home delivery, Smartbox parcel delivery has been introduced by integrating advanced technologies. The automated locker system is equally appealing for retailers, e-tailers and for online consumers.

How It All Began?
The concept of self-service lockers or click & collect mainly started in Europe and became popular among retail companies and consumers. The reason being, in many parts of the Europe, home delivery can be difficult as the majority of the population lives in dense urban centres compared to the U.S.

After Europe, some of the major parcel delivery services in the US including ‘United Parcel Service or UPS, embraced and incorporated delivery lockers or ‘Access Point Locations’ to solve the critical problem of failed deliveries. UPS is planning to expand the number of Access Point Locations to more than 20,000 in North America. Implementation of this strategy is likely to save a significant amount of money and time. In normal circumstances, when consumers or their family members aren’t at home to receive packages, delivery persons have to make costly second and even third return trips.

Following these footsteps, now e-commerce companies in India are also gearing up to install delivery lockers such as Smartbox automated terminals. As online shopping has become an integral part of consumers’ daily lives, parcel-delivery services and retailers plagued by missed deliveries are inclining towards automated parcel delivery to eliminate the inefficient, and often hectic last mile of the supply chain.

Opting for Smartbox – Why it is better?
As discussed above, e-commerce businesses have not proved to be as profitable as it was anticipated. Dropping off items at homes adds time, miles and costs to each delivery. On the other hand, delivering packages in bulk and creating convenience for consumers to collect their parcels at Smartbox delivery terminals can dramatically improve the delivery efficiency and make it more economical. In addition, by opting for Smartbox’ integrated delivery network of physical pick-up points, online retail companies can provide better flexibility to e-shoppers. Consumers would know that they will not miss their delivery as they will receive e-mail alerts and SMS to their mobile phone when the parcel arrives at the locker. Subsequently, they can collect their parcel whenever they like. This is indeed a win-win situation for online businesses and e-shoppers.