On-demand economy booms as consumers expect even faster delivery

THERE’S NO DOUBT THAT COVID-19 EXPEDITED THE RISE IN ECOMMERCE AND LEAD TO THE NOW-NEAR INSTITUTION OF THE HOME ECONOMY. AND WHILE THE PANDEMIC COMES UNDER CONTROL WITH AN ALMOST COMPLETE RELAXATION OF RESTRICTIONS, THE ON-DEMAND DELIVERY TREND IS FIRMLY FIXED INTO CONSUMERS’ LIVES, SO MUCH SO THAT BIG AND SMALL BUSINESSES NEED TO ADAPT THEIR LAST-MILE LOGISTICS SYSTEMS TO CATER FOR SOUTH AFRICANS’ INCREASING APPETITE FOR AT-HOME OR WORK DELIVERIES.

to underline this point, in 2021 South Africa’s eCommerce market was valued at USD 4.5 billion, and digital platforms have been widely adopted by customers across various sectors including health, food and retail.

So aggressive is this uptake that it is estimated that by 2027 the local eCommerce market will reach a value of USD 7,9 billion. That’s close to double where it stands now, within just six years. It’s not unrealistic either given the market increased in size by 100% in the past two years alone.

But all this growth comes with increased customer expectation: Research by the South African Digital Customer Experience Report 2021 shows that high shipping costs and unsatisfactory delivery options are the two primary contributors to a brand losing a sale at the virtual check-out. As such it is essential that businesses get that last-mile experience right, and that means upping their ante in the type of intelligent logistics solution software they use.

Fortunately, there is significant development happening in this space, with the local Picup among the leaders in delivery software technology. With digitisation in the sector happening at a rapid pace, and certainly likely to come into being within the next two years, players like Picup are enhancing their experiences so that endcustomers get their goods quicker and more affordably.

BY ANTONIO BRUNI, PICUP CEO

“making the home economy grow even bigger

Here Picup founder Antonio Bruni unpacks the leading logistics technology trends that will soon influence the local on-demand sector – and make the home economy grow even bigger.

EMERGENCE OF 5G TECHNOLOGY

While 5G is still relatively new in South Africa, it offers data speeds that are 20-times faster than existing 4G long-term evolution (LTE) networks. What this means for ondemand deliveries is that service providers can enhance their ability to use analyticsbased solutions to more effectively manage inventory and supply chains.

This yields better accuracy rates and speed in reaching the end customer. 5G also has the potential to enable almost real-time data analytics, which allows businesses to make faster and more informed decisions such as circumstances related to weather or traffic. Further, 5G improves signal quality and connection enabling drivers to work faster on the road.

AI AND MACHINE LEARNING

Artificial Intelligence and machine learning have played a major role in the logistics sector for years now, so this is not something new. But its use is helpful at providing last-mile logistics analysis and optimisation, supplier selection and workforce planning. In the case of last-mile delivery, AI has revolutionised the experience in ways such as creating more efficient route deliveries, streamlining business processes and enabling better customer satisfaction.

When considering the former, AI solutions that use algorithms can provide an optimum number of fleets that can make a delivery using the shortest route possible. What’s more, it can also learn the routes through input of historical data, which then can maximise the delivery window while also analysing the cost-benefit to provide the most efficient way to deliver a package to a consumer.

Consumers can also use tracking solutions to trace their deliveries throughout the lastmile delivery process. This creates greater transparency and trust.

IoT

The Internet of Things (IoT) has impacted all areas of our lives, and so too has it affected the logistics industry. Through intelligent data analysis it helps to manage assets remotely, predicts risk, ensures proper cargo handling and can forecast traffic congestion. In short, IoT creates the connection among goods, packaging, transportation hubs and vehicles.

SMARTPHONE LOGISTICS

In days gone by, logistics firms would have had a hard time communicating in realtime with their drivers; now thanks to the smartphone they can be engaged while en route. They also send invaluable data back to the system instantly, while validating addresses while on-the-go. Smartphones are also paperless so the humble waybill is a thing of the past as details are captured automatically, while the intelligent devices can also optimise routes meaning the delivery happens quicker.

The cost of the hardware used by drivers has also come down drastically and a unit is now in the region of R1000; this used to be a barrier to entry but the lower prices make it more affordable for businesses to switch to more integrated technology. Further, the high cost of printing waybills and its admin vs. using a smartphone to capture data considerably brings down hard costs.

CHANGING TO OPTIMISE DELIVERY

Lastly, any brand that is adopting smart logistics technology will require a degree of change management across their business units as training will be needed to understand how to switch to technologyenabled systems.

It is a 360 degree shift from traditional processes which are time-consuming, paper heavy and slow to a more efficient, techenabled service that puts the customer first and delivers on-demand without any cumbersome processes to slow it down.

NEWS

PAYUP APP SIMPLIFIES LAY BUYS

FINTECH FIRM PAYJUSTNOW HAS INTRODUCED AN APP THAT ENABLES INSTORE RETAILERS TO PROCESS SPLIT PAYMENTS WITH NO POINT OF SALE (POS) INTEGRATION. PAYUP ENABLES RETAILERS TO OFFER A BUY NOW PAY LATER (BNPL) SOLUTION ALMOST INSTANTANEOUSLY WITHOUT INTEGRATION DELAYS.

luegrass Digital were brought in

Bto augment the team with their mobile app skillset and supported the delivery of the new mobile app for iOS and Android.

PayUp has given PayJustNow a competitive advantage, which is critical in the fintech space. It allows merchants to offer PayJustNow at check out with no POS integration. It offers shoppers split payments at checkout while getting their goods upfront. The purchase is split into three interest-free instalments. The app also offers a broader spectrum of merchants the ability to offer BNPL to their customers without significant investment in web development or POS integration. It gives the merchant an end-to-end view of the transaction flow – from onboarding new consumers, processing a sale to daily cash ups and executing a refund. PayJustNow CIO Mark Mchlery says Bluegrass Digital was selected as its mobile partner because of its reputation for diligence and extraordinary attention to detail on projects. “They made sure everyone was always on the same page, they sent updates and feedback regularly. The team also impressed with their broad expertise.”

“The brief was to close out an agile project and build a native application on Android, IOS and Harmony OS on the React Native platform. Once the brief was delivered, they patiently stood by until we could de“ offer BNPL liver the API endpoints and wireframes with our design considerations,” he adds. solutions almost instantly

Bluegrass Digital was integral in highlighting some features and opportunities PayJustNow had missed. They delivered a sandbox version for User Acceptance Testing purposes across all the OS’s within agreed timeframes.

“They have a broad-spectrum team, each with complementary skills at the top of their game in their field. The start to finish process was made all that much easier as they took the time to understand our goals and openly shared contrasting opinions on some of our initial assumptions,” he concludes.

BY NICK DURRANT, BLUEGRASS DIGITAL CEO