Crowdserving: A Last Mile Delivery Method For Brick-And-Mortar Retailers

The retail industry increasingly is shifting to online sales. According to Forrester Researchers, ecommerce has seen an increase of over 10% per year. To be able to compete, brick-and-mortar retailers have begun offering customers free online order pickup options at their retail stores. However, customer demands are shifting to a same-day home delivery model. This home delivery model has companies such as Amazon searching for new technologies to deliver faster. For brick-and-mortar stores to compete, they must try to match this same-day home delivery model to meet customer demands. Last mile delivery (LMD) is an option for brick-and-mortar stores given that they store products at multiple retail facilities and distribution centers. Some brick-and-mortar stores now are incorporating third party carriers to provide same-day delivery. The drawback to LMD is the increased transportation cost, which includes vehicle, fuel, and driver costs. This article explores the option of a variation of crowdsourcing along with current technologies in the way of cell phone apps utilizing GPS technology and real-time notifications to explore a viable customer delivery method for LMD. This new method will provide a way to reduce transportation costs and to make LMD more feasible at many brick-and-mortar retailers