THE FUTURE OF GOODS DELIVERY AFTER RECOVERY FROM THE PANDEMIC
Will the eCommerce boom continue and how will it affect the use of commercial vehicles
The pandemic situation is affecting all aspects of operations globally and generating a number of spillovers. One of them is what we can call the eCommerce boom. There are several reasons why this is the case, and among the most significant are restrictions on free movement, the closure of establishments and consumers' own fear of contracting the coronavirus. Thus, online shopping has become the only alternative for most retail customers.
A number of companies that have long resisted this have been forced to set up e-shops. In order to stay in business, the only way was to offer customers the option of online shopping. This had a significant impact on the demand for courier services and to a large extent influenced the use of commercial vehicles.
DEMAND FOR COMMERCIAL VEHICLE USE AND RENTAL TO GROW IN 2020
During the COVID-19 pandemic, consumer shopping habits changed significantly and a significant portion of purchases moved online. For this reason, Slovak eshops have seen significant changes in consumer behaviour in 2020. Where e-shop sales increased, this was most often an increase of 16-30%. Conversely, when sales declined, merchants experienced losses of more than 30%. During the pandemic, e-tailers most often struggled with longer delivery times for goods or services and supplier outages. Six out of ten Slovak e-shops were affected by problems with package delays. Almost 80% of them said that their packages were delayed on average 1-6 days in reaching their customers. The need to secure a strong and reliable partner for the transport of goods and the provision of commercial vehicles therefore proved crucial in terms of running an e-shop and online trading as a whole. AVIS has the strongest position in the van rental market with its commercial vehicle division Van Rental. AVIS has responded to the increased demand by adding new medium-term rental products to the AVIS MaxiRent range with 3- and 6-month terms and by adding new vehicle categories to its already broad range, thus adapting to clients' needs as much as possible. These were also the reasons why a number of eshop operators and companies offering their services through the online environment used AVIS vanrental. You can read about other benefits in the article 4 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD RENT AND NOT BUY A VAN!
THE NEED FOR SPECIFIC TYPES OF SUPPLY IS STRONGER TODAY
Fear of health threats is pervasive and even a basic need such as buying food is subject to the risk of contagion. There is a growing demand for food delivery services directly to the home, resulting in an increased demand for specific types of commercial vehicles adapted for such transport. The situation in 2020 has shown us that there are not enough of these vehicles on the market and, due to the constraints of the economy, it is not possible to supply the necessary specification of commercial vehicles to the market at the relevant time. Once again the strength of the AVIS brand has been demonstrated, where we have been able to rapidly increase the numbers of such vehicles through the AVIS Van Rental and AVIS Maxi Rental products, thus meeting the needs of clients and ultimately the consumers themselves with immediate response.
HOW WE WILL USE COMMERCIAL VEHICLES AFTER RECOVERY FROM THE PANDEMIC
One of the World Health Organization's (WHO) top officials, Michael Ryan, announced on March 1, 2021 that ending the pandemic in 2021 is unrealistic and therefore we can expect set trends in consumer behavior to intensify. However, any even partial relaxation of measures results in an immediate response in the form of increased activity of transporting goods by commercial vehicles. This is both in the B2B and B2C segments.
For more information on why it is beneficial to use AVIS services during a pandemic situation, see the article IN UNCERTAIN TIMES, COUNT ON SURETY.
Whether individual companies are transporting goods to their customers on their own or using one of the courier services to do so, the trend is clearly set for the use of commercial vehicles to increase steadily since the start of the pandemic, even during the restrictions that have been put in place.
It can be assumed that current consumer purchasing habits will continue to increase even after the pandemic situation has calmed down. The benefits of online shopping and delivery rather than bricks-and-mortar stores will be preferred by more and more consumers and the eCommerce boom will continue.
As the economy eases, the demand for commercial vehicle transportation will also rise in the B2B segment. Therefore, it is already evident that the trend in the use of N1 commercial vehicles will continue to rise and the demand will increase for both standard and specific categories of these vehicles.
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