Over the past decade, we’ve seen a steady rise in the online shopping industry. In fact, it is increasing in power and popularity with each passing year. There’s no doubt that this is now the ultimate form of shopping, and it looks set to kill off high street shopping in a few years time. A recent news article from last month detailed how UK retailers are expected to send a staggering one billion parcels in 2015. This will mark the first time this has happened, and gives a good indicator of the strength and growth of online shopping.
There are many industries that have been affected by the rise in online shopping. For a start, high street retailers continue to suffer major losses as their shoppers defect. Many have attempted to combat this issue by moving into an online retail marketplace. This has helped somewhat, but they’re still struggling.
There are so many advantages to online shopping that it’s hard to see a way back for high street retail. For one thing, it’s so much more convenient to shop online. You can go anywhere you like and look for anything you like. And you can do it all sat in your armchair with a glass of Merlot. It’s estimated the average UK customer spends around four hours a week shopping online. This calculates that UK consumers save around £32 million in petrol costs from shopping online. That’s definite food for thought.
One of the industries that has no doubt reaped the benefits of online shopping is the logistics industry with a trusted ecommerce fulfillment provider. Because of the increase in people using online shopping there are two key ways in which the industry’s benefitted.
For a start, the advantages of online shopping have seen customers flock to it. This has seen the demand for products skyrocket, and the number of orders climb to staggering levels. Most online entities will have to make arrangements for delivery of their products. They can outsource to sites like www.ltsdistribution.co.uk to get all their orders delivered. Due to the increase in customers and orders there’ll be a much higher demand for logistical businesses. One of the major parts of online shopping is maintaining customer satisfaction. And this means getting products to people within the set timeframe. For this, it’s necessary to employ delivery drivers and couriers, etc.
The other big reason for a boom in the logistics industry is the demand for stock. The number of new consumers and increased orders creates a self-perpetuating cycle. As the demand for products increases, it’s necessary for companies such as Amazon to replenish their stock. They’ll need to order pallet-fulls of stock to sustain the demand. And this stock will need to be delivered to Amazon depots and warehouses nationwide.
This is difficult to achieve without the use of logistics companies who can organise, plan and deliver. It seems likely that the more the online shopping sector grows the more the logistics industry will blossom. There will always be a need for the transportation and delivery of stock and products. And, as a result, there will always be a need for logistical companies and services.
