The growth of online retail could be driven by significant innovations made in the delivery sector, one firm believes.
Fastlane International, a London-based global courier company, predicts that improvements made to the delivery services offered by online retailers in 2015 could potentially boost online sales by $18 billion (£11.67 billion), retailgazette.co.uk reports.
Sunday deliveries are expected to become more commonplace after proving to be a big hit with consumers, presumably because most people are not at work and can ensure they’re at home when deliveries arrive. Same-day deliveries are also predicted to increase, as the demand for “instant gratification” grows.
David Jinks, a spokesperson for Fastlane International, suggests that whereas it was the companies that once decided how long a delivery would take, it’s now the customers who are in the driving seat, and they have the power to decide exactly when and where they want their products delivered, even down to the exact hour.
“Retailers have paid lip-service to the idea that the customer is king, or queen, for many years; but today they really are,” he said. “By next Christmas, we’re predicting a number of retailers will be offering fast, time specific, same-day deliveries.”
Better signature proof systems are also given as an innovation consumers will see next year. Further into the future, however, it’s predicted that unmanned drones will be making the deliveries instead of humans. One German island is already testing drone delivery technology for medical supplies in a DHL experiment, theverge.com reports.