Transportation Report

AS E-COMMERCE CONTINUES TO REWRITE THE playbook for just about every business, parcel express carriers are adapting and innovating in new and different ways, responding to demands from evolving online marketplaces, emerging businesses, traditional retailers, and consumers who want an Amazon- and Uber-like experience when buying and receiving goods.

Consumers increasingly want faster, more flexible, and lower-cost parcel delivery services. They want the ability to manage the entire transaction on their mobile smart-phone—from product selection to payment to carrier selection to real-time, up-to-the minute shipment tracking. That’s changing the market for all participants, from small urban last-mile delivery startups like Deliv to regional parcel carriers such as On Trac, all the way to the industry’s largest and longest-established players—United Parcel Service (UPS), FedEx, and the U.S. Postal Service.

One thing is clear, nobody is standing still. It’s a market that remains ripe with opportunity—and challenges. With e-commerce-generated package and parcel volumes exploding, there is growth opportunity across the board for carriers small and large. And that’s despite Amazon’s continuing to take more of its freight, parcel, and package volumes in-house, deploying its own transportation and delivery network, and upping the ante to one-day delivery of goods purchased by Amazon Prime members on its site.

ON A GROWTH TRAJECTORY

E-commerce continues to radically reshape how both B2C (business-to-consumer) and B2B (business-to-business) companies serve their customers. UPS estimates global e-commerce sales will hit $3.3 trillion in 2019 and more than double to $6.7 trillion in 2025. It cites analyst predictions that global e-commerce, projected to account for 13

Parcel carriers evolve as
e-commerce explodes

With e-commerce-generated package volumes soaring, there is growth opportunity across the board for carriers small and large. But success in this fast-moving market won’t come easy.