It is estimated that the turnover of e-commerce in our country reached 20.5 billion euros in 2022, when eight out of ten consumers made purchases of goods through their computer – one more compared to 2021, while the sector shows a strong upward trend in Greece and in Europe, which makes it imperative to take measures for the next day.
Dr. points out the above. Vasilios Zeibekis, based on the pan-Hellenic survey: E-commerce logistics & last-mile orchestration: Investigating the Greek e-commerce ecosystem. He presented the research himself during the proceedings of the conference, which takes place in the context of the 1st Logistics&Transports Thessaloniki EXPO at TIF.
According to the research, Greeks spend, on average, 644 euros in physical stores and 510 euros for online purchases, while the turnover from e-commerce in Greece constitutes 6.9% of the total of 40,000 businesses that employ ten people and above and which had a turnover of 295.9 billion Euros.
Regarding the online stores that Greeks choose for their online purchases, the survey shows that 91% vote for Greek. “E-commerce indicators show a continuous rise in Greece”, emphasizes Mr. Zeibekis and adds that multi-channel delivery reduces logistics costs and significantly increases the customer experience.
He clarifies that multi-channel distribution, in addition to increasing the customer experience, seems to reduce logistics costs, while home delivery costs up to five times more than “click and collect” type deliveries involving smart lockers.
The next day
All survey participants estimate that the e-commerce industry will grow significantly in the coming years, while the majority of participants argue that as a result the workload will also “gallop” and thus require more employees (if processes are not automated) and significantly strengthen the use of information systems with a simultaneous positive sign in sales and profitability.
In this context, according to Mr. Zeibekis, in order for companies (e-shops and/or logistics service providers) to cope with the ever-increasing demands of end customers, they should acquire a digital culture, reorganize their processes , train their staff and attract executives with experience and expertise and invest in automation and intelligent systems.
Conclusions for the operation of e-shops
The storage areas that are basically used by e-shops for in-house logistics are small, basic storage systems are used (e.g. light shelves, lockers), while the processes inside the warehouse are done without the adoption of specialized information systems ( mainly with Excel & ERP files).
As it emerged from the research and according to Mr. Zeibekis, the majority of e-shops (59%) choose in-house storage, while 27% of the e-shops in the sample also collaborate with 3PLs, mainly due to lack of space (function as buffer areas).
The e-shops (those that would potentially make sense to go for a logistics outsourcing solution) are not convinced of the benefits they will get, since they consider that the costs are in several cases higher or even if they are the same. Also, they consider that they lose in flexibility, as well as in end-to-end visibility which they argue is the main component of the customer experience they want to offer to their customer base.
For the collection and sorting of orders, e-shops, based on the results of the research, use simple-basic solutions and systems and a small percentage is the use of alternative picking technologies (e.g. light picking).
In the meantime, with the aim of increasing their customer base, online store owners are working with multiple courier companies, offering multi-channel delivery methods, but they have not fully realized the role played by logistics in terms of cost, productivity and customer experience. “For this reason, the majority of e-shops in the sample have not invested in the digital transformation of their logistics processes,” he notes.
Service providers
3PL companies have large warehouses where they could potentially house the inventory of multiple e-shops, but few have invested in equipment and technologies related to item-level goods management. There are far fewer 3PL companies that have chosen automation and goods-to-picker solutions (eg AMRs for picking, sorting, etc.).
Regarding the cost of carrying out an order, the survey shows that 3PL companies have not yet managed to reduce it, but maintain the quality of the services provided.
IT systems and technologies
Although e-shops are not moving fast in their digital transformation, the majority of them have realized its importance. However, there is still a very high percentage of companies that request the implementation of a pilot, in order to ascertain on a practical level the benefits they will obtain.
An encouraging finding of the survey was that the majority of the pilots that have been run in recent times are for picker-to-goods & goods-to-picker order management equipment as well as robotics & automation with an emphasis on AGVs & AMR systems. The main reasons for low digital maturity, according to technology providers, are the lack of skilled executives and employees, the lack of financial tools for investing in information systems, as well as the lack of digital culture.
Research in numbers
The research sample (N=306) is representative of the parts that make up the Greek e-commerce ecosystem in Greece. 55% of the sample concerns commercial companies with e-shops, 37% logistics service providers and 8% fulfillment providers. systems and equipment.
The e-shops that participated in the research are active in multiple trade sectors, based mainly in Attica and Thessaloniki (74%) and are mostly Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
The majority of the logistics service providers (3PLs) that participated in the survey belong to the SME category (82% have a turnover of up to 50 million euros and 75% up to 249 employees) and the majority (88%) are based in Attica.
The courier/clever point operators companies that participated in the survey are based in Attica and are mostly SMEs (in terms of their turnover – 75%) but 63% have more than 250 employees.
The transport service companies / agencies that participated in the research belong to a high majority of the SME category and the majority of them are based in Attica (65%) and Central Macedonia (11%).
The companies providing pl. systems & automation companies that participated in the survey are based in Athens by majority (91%) and correspondingly belong to the SME category at a percentage of 96%.
A large percentage of e-shops (60%) have small warehouses of up to 1,000 sq.m. and the majority of them (65%) execute daily up to 200 orders. But there is also a 10% where they execute more than 800 orders daily.
The average number of order lines executed daily is as many as 200 in the majority (64%) of the e-shops in the survey. 71% of e-shops have between 1-7 order lines per order and 65% of e-shops between 1-5 pcs per order (with a large percentage having 1 pc/order).
The reasons for returns vary and concern both refusal of receipt (42%) and logistics issues (e.g. product damaged in transit – 32%, wrong SKU – 32%). The rate of returns is at satisfactory levels (65% of e-shops have returns as low as 1%).
The majority of the storage equipment used by e-shops (for in-house logistics) are light type shelves (58%), B2B shelves (49%) and lockers (36%) mainly for piece picking. “There is a trend in the use of racks for the height exploitation of storage spaces,” he emphasizes.
The majority of internal handling equipment used by e-shops are order picking carts (50%), manual pallet trucks (42%), electric pallet trucks (32%) and stackers (33%) due to warehouses that do not have much height.
To collect and sort orders, e-shops use information systems (ERP – 59%, WMS-36%) or Excel files (38%). 1/3 of the e-shops use RF-scanners to achieve systematic inventory monitoring, while a small percentage uses alternative picking technologies (e.g. Light picking).
76% of e-shops report that the cost of executing an order (in-house logistics) reaches Euro2, while the majority of e-shops do not charge for returns (69%) with the aim of attracting a larger customer base without consider the logistics costs of the return.
A large part of the e-shops that participated in the research choose to cooperate with more than two courier companies with the aim of flexibility and the highest customer experience. Home delivery still dominates while the use of drop boxes is on the rise. Deliveries are usually made in one to two days (65%), while the delivery interval of 48-72 hours (56%) remains important.
53% of transport companies/courier companies report returns as low as 1%, however there is also a 21% who report that they range from 4%-5% of parcels to be delivered.
Refusal of delivery (64%) is the main reason for returning orders, followed by not finding a recipient to deliver the parcel (54%). The two reasons are related to the mentality of e-commerce customers, to the non-existence of a charge for returns, as well as to the options that exist in alternative delivery methods (omni-channel).
The main reasons for low digital maturity, according to technology providers, are the lack of skilled executives and employees (76%), the lack of financial tools to invest in IT systems (59%) and the lack of digital culture (47%)
Source: RES-MPE
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