UAE consumers need to understand value of delivery services – industry experts

UAE consumers need to understand value of delivery services – industry experts

Peter Somers, CEO of Emirates Post, remarked that he wished retailers had never offered free delivery. He said that free delivery started in the early days of e-commerce more than 20 years ago, which had led to consumers thinking that all delivery should be free.

“They demolished the value of delivery big time,” he said. He advised retailers to “explain to customers the value of logistics.”

Somers added: “At the end of the day, it is the driver, certainly in e-commerce, who is the only physical contact between our customers and consumers. If you don’t pay and take care of your people, the service will be lousy.”

He also noted that the quick commerce or q-commerce model, of trying to deliver products within 15 minutes, may not be sustainable going forward. “The question is, globally, is this model sustainable, and what are they going to change?”

In the future, consumers can expect to see the CO2 emissions generated by their delivery next to the price when they are buying online, he said, emissions being higher the faster the package is expected to be delivered.

Jonathan Savoir, co-founder and CEO of supply chain delivery platform Quincus, said the pandemic had led people to expect faster deliveries