In today’s fast-paced world, consumers have changed their needs and behaviour and expect cheap, or even better, free-of-cost, fastest delivery of food and grocery essentials. To stay relevant and competitive, grocers ought to find a way to enhance efficiency and trim costs in order to finance their shipping logistics. Last-mile delivery has become the most viable for brick-and-mortar as well as online businesses.
With exceptional demand for digital retailers and logistics firms, companies have to adopt vigorous omni-channel fulfilment strategies to cater to consumer demand. Additionally, firms can increase delivery speed and decrease associated costs. After the pandemic outbreak, numerous last-mile delivery firms started delivering 95% of all online orders in the US. There has been an explosion in the demand for last-mile delivery.
Some of these firms offer top-tier services and are helping businesses improve last-mile efficiency and reduce costs. According to a study, 93% of consumers anticipate real-time tracking of their last-mile delivery and monitor the delivery process while its in process. Another study found that 20% of respondents like to track their delivery packages multiple times a day. The last-mile delivery solution involves five steps. The delivery process is initiated when customers order online through a centralised system. These orders then reach the transportation hub and await delivery to their end recipients. From this step, last-mile delivery firms incorporate their solutions. They sort and then designate the packages for delivery. Security teams scan the customer packages before placing them into delivery vehicles. Lastly, customers receive their orders, and a receipt is also issued.
Let us have a look at the top five last-mile delivery startups that are transforming the last-mile delivery space.
1. Nuro
Nuro, the well-known last-mile delivery startup founded by Dave Ferguson and Jiajun Zhu, is a fully-automated last-mile delivery startup that offers delivery by robots. This delivery startup has teamed up with Walmart, Uber, 7-Eleven, Kroger and Chipotle to name a few of its amazing partners. The Nuro team manages their autonomous vehicles to connect them with the communities and is a pivotal part of Nuro’s mission to build the future of delivery.
2. Bringg
Bringg, one of the leading Tel-Aviv-based delivery management platforms, offers its retail partners a branded experience, reduces costs and helps them increase their capacity. The last-mile delivery platform unifies and digitises the entire last-mile ecosystem. It also engineers competitive fulfilment services depending on the business goals and KPIs of a company. Moreover, Bringg aims to launch and scale state-of-the-art omni-channel delivery & fulfilment solutions for its partner firms. The firm further helps them expedite the customer-centric delivery experience across the last mile. After partnering with Bringg, firms can annihilate manual processes and achieve greater results through digitised solutions. Guy Bloch, CEO of Bringg, is proud of operating a modern startup and has partnered with big names like KFC, Coles, Coop, Autozone and many more.
3. Starship Technologies
4. Onfleet
Onfleet, another prominent last-mile delivery firm, is the go-to and trusted platform for countless firms across dozens of industries, including food and beverage, retail, e-commerce, furniture, pharmacy and many more. Emily Ehrlich, eCommerce Coordinator, and Ryan James, Sr. Manager Operations Innovation, Kroger, shared that Onfleet helped them expand their delivery capacity by 50% through their route optimisation engine. The platform also offers accurate ETAs and real-time visibility to its customers, which improve on-time rates and customer satisfaction. Through effortless onboarding, real-time data and in-app collection of photos and barcodes, Onfleet ensures a higher success rate for its partner companies. Khaled Naim founded the last-mile delivery firm, which is headquartered in San Francisco.
