Creating positive customer experiences has become more important than ever for retailers and third-party logistics providers. Delivery is an increasingly important part of the customer experience. At the same time, e-commerce growth is driving a dramatic increase in the number of package deliveries, which puts pressure on logistical flows and poses significant challenges for both e-retailers and third-party logisticians. In order to handle the increased volumes and to increase the freedom of choice for the consumer, traders are testing new delivery options. 

Read more in this (Swedish) blog post from 2022.

Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of climate change and place ever higher sustainability demands on retail. Retail, which constitutes a critical link between producers and consumers and plays a significant role in production and consumption patterns, seeks to find innovative solutions to reduce its environmental impact. But despite ongoing sustainability initiatives in retail, more comprehensive changes are required to limit climate change and its effects. This is what John Olsson suggests in his PhD dissertation.

Grocery retail is going through a rapid shift. Consumers now expect to be able to shop online or in stores, get orders delivered when and where they want, and preferably as quickly as possible. This development is called omnichannel and means grocery retailers must transform their logistics networks to meet consumers’ evolving expectations and demands. The omnichannel transformation includes, for example, setting up new material handling (MH) nodes to pick online orders and investing in new automated systems. While this might sound straightforward, grocery retailers struggle to succeed with the omnichannel transformation, particularly in living up to consumers’ evolving expectations and becoming profitable. 

Ebba Eriksson's dissertation explores MH configurations and logistics capabilities needed in the omnichannel transformation of grocery retail. It contains important information for practitioners who want to understand how to manage an omnichannel transformation.