With two months to go before the Christmas period begins each year, the campaign is brought forward further. A trend that makes the months of October, November and December the strongest of the year as opposed to a January that always points to a certain decline. The 2020-2021 Christmas campaign is expected to be the most digital in the history of commerce, with some portals already venturing to reach 940 billion dollars worldwide. The COVID-19 crisis and the period of confinement have been the real accelerator of a digital channel that is on the rise.
Many experts agree that the logistics sector is going to have to adapt to the trend that is imposing ever faster deliveries and which involves policies to reinforce the workforce as well as increasing the capacity of logistics centres or warehouses.
At Operinter, with exclusive services dedicated to e-commerce, we have already spoken about e-commerce in the times of COVID-19. We always follow very closely all the trends linked to mass consumption that directly influence the supply chains.
Proximity logistics and digitalisation
Distributors, manufacturers and logistic operators already point out that electronic sales and home services are going to gain more and more prominence while physical establishments are going to decrease in the current situation. In fact, companies expect that, in the coming months, more proximity operations will be set up and document digitalisation will be consolidated.
Increase in costs
These new trends will have consequences on the very operation of the value chain with a more digital, agile, flexible and efficient logistics. However, in return, many experts believe that storage and handling costs will increase. Dealers also expect an increase in transport costs, especially due to the increase in empty returns over long distances and the increase in last mile operations.