Smart delivery for e-commerce

A good idea for your startup

Trend: Despite the e-commerce boom following the pandemic in 2021, the average transit time for parcels is still quite timely. For example, in Germany it takes about 2 working days to get your parcel from door to door (actually 3+ days for DHL's regular plan) in 2023. At the moment we can only dream about widespread intraday delivery so far. However, even 1 working day is too long. Fortunately, opportunities to streamline the process have emerged that hit the major trend of logistic optimization in the coming years.

Investors' Bets: Parcel delivery companies often rely on daily connections with suburban warehouses, but because most of the e-commerce parcels are relatively small-scale, it is like an elephant which carrying matchboxes on its back. You need to wait while they load up this “elephant” for the next round. Why not to Uberize this process and make the delivery much faster? For example, the British company Relay, which developed a platform connecting local couriers and e-commerce companies, managed to secure $10 million in seed investments. Their flexible fleet of on-demand couriers and a distributed hyperlocal network provide a more profitable and peak-resistant end-to-end delivery solution compared to centralized suburban warehouses.

Currently, Relay operates in the UK, collaborating with several local retailers in London, with plans to expand nationwide in 2024.

To-Do: Develop a similar platform for your region, pilot an MVP with local retailers, and then collaborate with marketplaces.

If you're unsure where to start, visit an incubator's page. If you already have a project and need funding for your startup, click here for more details.

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