E-commerce is thriving like never before, with people ordering all sorts of things from various websites around the world. However, small cracks can be seen at the delivery stage. Sometimes I find that shipping costs more than I imagined and becomes a significant part of the purchase itself, and sometimes packages get lost, never arrive, or take a very long time.
Delivery is the big weakness of ecommerce. With so many people shopping online, efficient supply chains with good logistics are needed, while at the same time keeping shipping prices under constant pressure.
In the past, the postal service was highly respected, with postmen wearing uniforms, a prestigious and important government position. Accuracy and keeping to deadlines were essential. Today, we have many different delivery companies with different profiles and efficiency. And if you want to keep freight prices down, you have to hire low-paid people who are not as accurate as they used to be.
Combine lower skills with ever-increasing deliveries, maybe there is a pain threshold somewhere? And anyone who has had a few parcels go missing or take too long will naturally lose the desire to continue ordering online. The whole point of e-shopping is that you can order all sorts of products, cheaply, and have them delivered to your door, or to a delivery point near you.
If e-commerce companies want to put more effort into the delivery itself, to make it really painless, it will require more skilled staff and more expensive prices. Therefore, the product will not be much cheaper than in the store, which can gain advantages from mass delivery.
Perhaps in the future, e-commerce will not be relevant for ordinary, normal products, but more for special goods that are difficult to obtain? Or has e-commerce taken too much share already, and the shops that could provide an alternative have long since closed? And we will have to order online whether we like it or not?
