The Last Mile

Retailers are constantly on the lookout for new last mile solutions to thwart competition from overseas and domestic market places while maintaining or improving NPS and customer experience. The last mile is usually the last piece of the puzzle, but one of the most important and, potentially, neglected pieces.

The dreaded ‘black hole’ of last mile logistics, with it’s unexpected outcomes, is every retailers nightmare. They carefully procure an amazing experience online or in store only to then rely on so many moving parts going their way for a successful delivery to their customer. B2C is a challenge for all stakeholders of the equation: retailers, carriers and consumers alike. If only there was something practical to offer?

Imagine a solution that extends the online experience to the offline (physical) world with a sleek, secure, cloud based solution available 24/7 conveniently located near your store, your customers place of work or their residence. The solution? Smart Parcel Lockers. Pakpobox is proud to make available safe and secure, modular smart parcel lockers which can offer inbound, outbound, click and collect and returns services for a variety of goods and retailers. Their Cloud based platform allows retailers to send items to the lockers with customers picking them up at their own convenience. Further, they are available for use as a returns portal by customers liaising with the retailer before dropping them in the returns locker.

These smart lockers , through their interconnection with the Internet of Things (IoT), can allow them to interact with the Physical Internet. The Physical Internet Initiative’s manifesto is „Transforming the way physical objects are handled, moved, stored, realized, supplied and used, aiming towards global logistics efficiency and sustainability.” It attempts to achieve this by applying concepts from internet data transfer to real-world shipping processes. A recent Center for Excellence in Logistics and Distribution (CELDi) project found that the expected annual benefits of the Physical Internet, if adopted in the U.S., would be: a reduction in costs of over $100B, a reduction in CO2 emissions of over 200 Tg, and a reduction in driver turnover of up to 75%. [1]

Pakpobox Australia has created an agile modular locker central system, hosted in an enterprise grade Sydney data Centre, which is constantly evolving with the rapid changes in the fast paced eCom environment. Retailers can make use of the smart lockers via the Pakpobox Central System through a number of methods: API, web based portal or through some of our integration partners like Hubbed.

For a secure, convenient, modular and expandable cloud based last mile solution – feel free to reach out to the team if you’d like to know more.

[1] – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Internet