ABSTRACT
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic led demand for online grocery orders for both click & collect (C&C) and attended home delivery (AHD) to outstrip delivery capacity by a wide margin. In the United Kingdom, the booking systems of some e-retailers could not handle the flood of incoming requests, forcing the retailers to proactively reach out to certain priority customer segments with the aim of serving as many high-priority customers as possible. To determine when to contact each customer segment in this extraordinary demand environment, we investigate the new demand management concept of proactively contacting customers. We first develop a decision policy for the C&C fulfillment method to address the problem of when to contact customers. We then extend this approach to the AHD setting. To cope with increased problem complexity, we propose a three-step procedure to solve this problem. First, we subdivide the delivery area into smaller subareas;second, we select the most promising subareas;and third, we determine which customers to contact within the chosen subareas. To gain managerial insights and to show the practical benefits of our approaches, we apply both approaches to realistic data from the London area. Our results show that proactive customer contacting allows for a tailored allocation of scarce capacity in e-groceries. We conclude with a discussion on how these contacting techniques can be valuable in postcrisis times. Copyright: © 2022 INFORMS.
ABSTRACT
In the first paper, "Customer experience dimensions in last-mile delivery: an empirical study on unattended home delivery”, John Olsson, Daniel Hellström and Yulia Vakulenko examine the substantial impact of the pandemic on home delivery of groceries and other online purchases. To fill this gap, the authors have collected primary and secondary data from seven countries to explore how policymakers employed different supply chain risk management strategies for handling shortage risks in their paracetamol supply chains before and during COVID-19. [...]we are very thankful for the time and effort that is put in by the reviewers in this special issue, the support from IJPDLM editorial team and the invaluable guidance from Professor Chee Yew Wong as chief editor, who helped us during the whole process.
ABSTRACT
The evolution of online shopping started when big players like Amazon began selling all types of merchandise. Customers understood the ease of shopping online, so the trend grew even stronger. It is therefore essential to conduct a study of online shopping usage and the perception of customers during COVID-19, especially in the grocery sector. In this study, approximately 28 respondents from 50 specifically targeted groups were surveyed, and data collection was undertaken through a structured questionnaire. The regression method was conducted to analyze the collected data. Additionally, 5 interviews were conducted to validate and support the findings. Customers definitely preferred online grocery shopping (OGS) services during COVID-19 due to safety, convenience, and government restrictions. The influential factors were very important in this case, like delivery times, good discounts, and the quality of products. Secondly, OGS services were more stable and alert during the pandemic situation, following the government's rules and restrictions. Customers were extremely satisfied with the safety precautions during COVID-19, the assistance provided through helplines for support, and the increased customer reach to make groceries as accessible as other reputable online departments.
ABSTRACT
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic led demand for online grocery orders for both click & collect (C&C) and attended home delivery (AHD) to outstrip delivery capacity by a wide margin. In the United Kingdom, the booking systems of some e-retailers could not handle the flood of incoming requests, forcing the retailers to proactively reach out to certain priority customer segments with the aim of serving as many high-priority customers as possible. To determine when to contact each customer segment in this extraordinary demand environment, we investigate the new demand management concept of proactively contacting customers. We first develop a decision policy for the C&C fulfillment method to address the problem of when to contact customers. We then extend this approach to the AHD setting. To cope with increased problem complexity, we propose a three-step procedure to solve this problem. First, we subdivide the delivery area into smaller subareas;second, we select the most promising subareas;and third, we determine which customers to contact within the chosen subareas. To gain managerial insights and to show the practical benefits of our approaches, we apply both approaches to realistic data from the London area. Our results show that proactive customer contacting allows for a tailored allocation of scarce capacity in e-groceries. We conclude with a discussion on how these contacting techniques can be valuable in postcrisis times.
ABSTRACT
The Coronavirus disease (COVID19) has brought many impacts to the activities including changed the habit for shopping the daily groceries. The purpose of this research is to examine the intention to use the Online Groceries Shopping (OGS) based on the framework of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with two primary factors that influence the intention to use technology OGS: perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. This is a quantitative research with non-probability sampling techniques of 317 respondents measured by 5 Point Likert scale and using Structural Equation Model (SEM) Smart PLS version 3 to analyze the data. The results obtained show all variables have positive and significant relationship to the intention to use OGS during the Covid19 Pandemic. © 2021 IEEE.