Bringg CEO Guy Bloch was among the industry leaders in attendance. After a packed few days of meetings with senior executives and speaker sessions, Bloch shared his biggest takeaways. His insights are also supported by other thought executives who spoke at the event.

Ultimately, Bloch’s reflections offer retailers a quick-but-potent prescription on what they should be thinking about this year to see last-mile success.

Key takeaway: “Better together”

• Businesses will form strategic partnerships and concentrate on their core strengths to create an interconnected ecosystem that improves last-mile fulfillment and customer experience.

The most popular topics at NRF 2025

Between the more than 175 speaker sessions and countless peer-to-peer conversations, a huge variety of important last-mile topics were discussed at NRF. Bloch outlined the three topics he found most vital across his time at the event.

Topic 1: Partnerships and ecosystem collaboration

“A recurring theme was the shift toward a ‘better together’ mindset,” said Bloch. “Companies are increasingly focusing on their core strengths and building partnerships to fill gaps in areas where they lack expertise—whether in last-mile delivery, fulfillment, customer experience, and more. This collaborative approach is driving a more interconnected ecosystem, where technology providers, retailers, and logistics partners work together to deliver value.”

“The retail ecosystem thrives when it works together.”

Topic 2: The return to core competencies

“After two years of internal adjustments—including reorganizations, revived teams, and recalibrated strategies—companies are returning to their core competencies while innovating to propel the digital transformation of retail,” said Bloch. “The emphasis is on creating sustainable, scalable solutions that drive operational efficiency and customer loyalty.”

Topic 3: AI and automation in last-mile delivery

“Retailers and technology providers are doubling down on AI-driven innovations to optimize the last-mile delivery experiences,” said Bloch. “This includes smarter routing, predictive demand planning, and enhanced delivery orchestration to meet customer expectations for speed and reliability.”

Levi Strauss & Co. was represented at the event by Chief Digital Officer Jason Gowans, who spoke on a panel with executives from Ralph Lauren and Starbucks. Gowans shared details of how Levi’s is using AI in a new platform called BackPocket, which gives in-store associates a 360-degree view of the shopper across all channels. The AI-driven solution helps associates quickly personalize the customer experience all the way down to determining the most convenient delivery method if a particular product isn’t in the store.

AI investments are also happening faster than ever in retail according to Joe Austin, VP of solutions architecture at Comcast Business.

“When decision-makers make a decision, they’re ready to move,” Austin commented during the conference. “Before in retail, we would see a decision-maker want to implement a new technology, and they were okay with a 12- to 18-month rollout, especially major nationwide, large retailers. Now when those CIOs are making that decision and they want to bring in the latest AI technology, they want it implemented tomorrow, and they’re ready to invest and they’re ready to grow.”

The biggest learning: Collaboration will be key

The last two years have been about adapting to the new economy. But Bloch said the learning from NRF 2025 is clear: “The industry is now pivoting to growth through collaboration and targeted innovation.”

“Companies are more willing to share components of the value chain where they lack strengths, ensuring better outcomes for everyone,” Bloch continued. “This collaborative mindset—paired with an accelerated focus on the last mile—shows that the retail ecosystem thrives when it works together.”

Ellen Svanström, chief digital information officer with H&M, echoed the need for partnerships during a panel discussion with leaders from Qurate Retail Group and Tapestry. She said partnerships and industry collaboration will be vital to keep up with the rapid pace of technological and customer changes.

“No single player can succeed alone in this rapidly evolving market.”

The universal appreciation for partnerships this year

When asked what takeaway from the event he found most surprising, Bloch  doubled-down on the excitement around “the universal acknowledgment that no single player can succeed alone in this rapidly evolving market.”

He said, “Even the largest retailers are embracing partnerships, combining their strengths with technology providers and delivery networks to build hybrid, scalable solutions. This openness to collaboration signals a profound shift in the market and highlights how the last mile is becoming a shared strategic priority across the ecosystem.”

More retail collaboration means there will be more opportunities to guarantee customer satisfaction in the last mile. By working together, retailers will ensure that products are delivered on time and in excellent condition, leading to a positive customer experience. This increased satisfaction not only fosters loyalty among existing customers but also incentivizes them to become repeat buyers, generating greater revenue and long-term success for retailers.

A collaborative approach among retailers will also optimize delivery routes, reduce shipping costs, and diversify delivery options like same-day or scheduled delivery. By sharing resources and expertise, retailers can create a more efficient and sustainable last-mile delivery network that benefits both businesses and consumers.

Read Bringg’s State of the Last Mile report to access even more 2025 delivery insights

The post Retail’s New Mantra: The Future Is “Better together”—Insights from NRF 2025 appeared first on Bringg.

It was just over five years ago that 7-Eleven delivered a chicken sandwich, donuts, coffee, candy, and Slurpees to a house in suburban Reno, NV marking the first autonomous drone retail delivery in history.

Since then, significant progress has been made on the technological, operational and regulatory fronts with major retailers, technology companies, logistics providers and drone developers making significant investments in drone delivery operations and running pilots with various partners and varying degrees of success.

Notwithstanding the progress made in bringing initial drone delivery services to a limited number of consumers, there are regulatory issues that must be addressed. With airplanes, helicopters and an ever-increasing number of drones filling the sky, regulatory authorities such as the US Federal Aviation Authority sought to limit drone activity by granting certification only to line-of-site operations. This is of course a non-starter for retail delivery.

The past few years, however, have seen progress made on this front with regulators cooperating with retailers and drone delivery providers to change these rules in an effort to enable the growth of autonomous drone delivery.

While this is all good news for drone delivery, one should realize that most of the actual deliveries have been done under heavily monitored conditions on a very limited scale. Just thinking about the possibilities of bad weather, drone accidents and technical malfunctions when there are thousands of drones in the air, makes it pretty clear that there is still a way to go before drone delivery pops up as an option at checkout.

Important Drone Initiatives Get off the Ground

After a decade of experimentation, trials and partnerships, leading retailers are finally launching drone delivery services for real – albeit on a limited basis for now – as last mile delivery inevitably heads toward mass adoption of drones and other autonomous delivery technologies.

Amazon

Since founder and former CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, first announced his vision of Amazon’s Prime Air Delivery Service back in 2013, the company has been investing significant resources into drone delivery. As a pure online retailer without a brick-and-mortar operation, this makes a lot of sense considering that last mile delivery makes up 53% of all shipping costs. According to Amazon Prime Air, after years of work by scientists, aerospace professionals and engineers, customers in rural Lockeford, CA now have an option of drone delivery. It’s also important to note that rural neighborhoods are the sweet spot of drone delivery.

Walmart

As a leading retailer with almost 5000 physical locations across the US, Walmart is not an online entity which might be why they invested in last mile drone delivery provider DroneUp. The Walmart-DroneUp partnership is offering drone delivery in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Texas, Utah and Virginia, with the goal of delivering online orders to their customers in one hour or less. Walmart’s advantage is the number of neighborhood stores it can use as the starting point for local drone delivery. The retailer claims that it is already in the process of setting up drone delivery in nearly 40 stores which could potentially serve 4 million homes.

Google

Drone delivery company Wing was created by Google and, as can be expected from a leading technology developer, has added advanced algorithms to provide complex route management and self-loading features in order to attain massive scale. Wing is currently available in 10 global locations, including Dallas, TX in the US, and claims to have made over 100,000 drone deliveries since the company’s inception.

Main Factors Affecting Adoption of Drone Delivery

With leading companies finally launching drone delivery services and regulatory bodies making efforts to provide certification that allow the industry to grow, there are still both positive and negative aspects to drone delivery that will affect the pace of mass adoption.

Positives

There are many positive reasons for retailers and consumers to prefer drone delivery which are fueling the growth of the industry today:

• Faster delivery speeds with no limitations due to road conditions or traffic 
• Greater efficiency with no driver downtime in the warehouse or loading dock 
• Reduces expenses with a lower cost per delivery, smaller fleets and fewer drivers
• Increased accessibility with faster delivery to rural and remote locations
• Better for the environment than gasoline powered delivery trucks 

Negatives

For every good reason to push the drone movement forward, there seems to be an obstacle to overcome before this delivery method becomes commonplace:

• Safety issues regarding interference with other aircraft 
• Liability for damage caused by a drone crash or technical malfunction
• Invasion of privacy when using cameras to film customers during delivery 
• Intrusive for residential neighborhoods due to loud incessant buzzing
• Capacity issues as most drones cannot deliver packages over 5 kilo/10 lbs

At the end of the day, it’s pretty clear that the positive reasons will push the growth of drone delivery while the negative aspects will be remedied over time by advanced technology, improved operations and better regulations.

Integration and Management of Drone Technology

Since the concept of drone delivery was first introduced a decade ago, there have been significant advancements in both delivery and drone technologies. With various players in the ecosystem, including pure online retailers, brick-and-mortar retailers, technology companies, delivery service providers and drone developers, all participating in various pilot projects, the technology is now at the tipping point of mass adoption.

What were once experimental trials are now giving way to the launch of actual drone delivery services in limited regions. If the obstacles cited above can be addressed including logistical, technological, regulatory and environmental challenges, then there is a good chance we will soon see drone delivery starting in rural areas and then spreading to more densely populated urban centers as the technology and consumer acceptance evolves.

Perhaps drone delivery will be knocking on our doorstep sooner than we think.

The post Drone Delivery is (almost) at our Doorstep appeared first on Bringg.

In the online world, that’s what happens to 7 out of every 10 shoppers. And it’s a massive drain on retailer’s profit margins. The question is, why do consumers abandon their carts when shopping online, and what can retailers do to get their online shoppers through checkout – and ensure repeat customers?

This article will explore the important role that both online shopping experience and last mile delivery plays in that process – and how every online retailer can reduce and even prevent digital cart abandonment.

What are the reasons for shopping cart abandonment?

It’s important to differentiate between cart abandoners who abandon their carts before and after starting the checkout process.

Shopping cart abandonment prior to checkout

Almost 60% of online shoppers in the US claim that they left their cart because they were just browsing and never intended to make a purchase anyway.

Part of this has to do with product availability and product pricing. 

Are you offering the products that your target consumers are looking for? Are competitors offering the same or similar products at reduced rates? 

Many online retailers today often have to compete with retail giants whose ecommerce sites offer free shipping on all or many products, or offer subscription models which include free shipping. This can affect customers who already know what they want, and are coming to a retailer’s website to compare prices.

Shopping cart abandonment at checkout

The second group, online shoppers who abandon their carts after proceeding to the checkout page, are even more interesting. 

This group of digital shoppers seem ready to make a purchase. But then, for some reason, these customers abandon their cart at the very end of the process. Understanding why this happens is one of the keys to reducing cart abandonment and increasing both ecommerce sales and customer stickiness. 

Analyzing the reasons for checkout abandonment can directly impact online sales – if the proper remedies are put into place. According to the Baymard Institute, the top 5 reasons for cart abandonment during the checkout process are:

1. High shipping costs, taxes and fees (48%)
2. Not willing to open a user account for an online store (24%)
3. Delivery options are not compatible with customer needs (22%)
4. Lack of trust in online stores to give them credit card details (18%)
5. Checkout options and processes are too complicated (17%)

Most of these checkout failures can be prevented by clear pricing information, streamlining the checkout process and providing multiple delivery and payment options.

It’s interesting to note that both the #1,  #3 and #6 reasons for cart abandonment, representing 86% of the responses, involve shipping and delivery.

What does last mile delivery have to do with cart abandonment?

While cart abandonment happens at the very beginning of the shopping experience, most people think of last mile delivery as something that completes the transaction – two separate bookends. 

If a shopper abandons their digital cart, then there is no order and no need for delivery. In that case, how can last mile delivery possibly influence an event that precedes it?

Despite this paradox, there are three important ways that delivery can affect cart abandonment:

Shoppers want to know, have you got delivery available when I want it? And is it at a price that I’m willing to pay?

If the answer isn’t ‘yes’ to all of these, it’s a problem. And if you have these services, but shoppers have no visibility into the options or the price of the service prior to checkout, it may provide an unpleasant surprise that will turn them away. 

To take the statistics above, 16% of shopping cart abandonment happened because online shoppers couldn’t figure out the final order cost prior to checkout. This happens because the average ecommerce platform or website doesn’t ask for a preferred method of delivery until the checkout process – and delivery options have a direct impact on the final order cost.

Shopping cart abandonment solutions

Now that we have an understanding regarding the underlying reasons for cart abandonment, especially as it relates to shipping and last mile delivery, here are a number of practical tips that can reduce the shopping cart abandonment rate for your eCommerce store.

1. No surprises

Online consumers want to be in control and don’t like surprises -especially when trying to find the best possible prices.

According to a DigitalCommerce 360 survey, 25% of shippers were frustrated with unclear shipping costs. Other common yet nasty surprises include unexpectedly long delivery times, taxes and other fees that only appear towards the end of the transaction. 

Negative surprises right when consumers are ready to check out fosters distrust in particular online stores – to the point of hoppers refusing to share their credit card details.

It is advisable to put all pricing information up-front and gain consumer confidence at the beginning of the customer journey – rather than misleading potential customers with low prices that grow significantly during the checkout process. 

2. Key parameter: visibility

Consumers want to know what is happening with their orders from start to finish. This includes when the order is out for delivery, whether from a warehouse or local store. 

This information must be easy for consumers to access wherever they are shopping, on whatever device they shop from. 

Giving online customers end-to-end visibility into delivery timeframes not only reduces digital shopping cart abandonment but also enhances overall customer satisfaction, improves brand loyalty and increases customer retention. Loyal customers are more likely to overcome technical obstacles and complete transactions rather than abandon their shopping carts.

On the backend, ecommerce retailers need to integrate inventory systems that provide real-time updates regarding shipping timeframes and delivery windows.

The most efficient solution for this user experience is a single delivery management system that provides both a front-end interface for consumers along with backend interfaces for easy integration with existing retail IT systems.

3. Delivery cost reduction

During these uncertain times with rising prices and supply chain disruption, it’s challenging to get on time delivery at all, regardless of how much it costs.

Online consumers on the other hand are looking for the lowest prices and have come to expect a free delivery option. For retailers, this means either adding a modest delivery fee that won’t scare away consumers or absorbing delivery costs and squeezing their already shrinking bottom line. 

Either way, delivery costs must be cut by introducing automated technologies that increase efficiency, reduce costs and provide end-to-end visibility for all stakeholders.

These include working with a delivery network of multiple fleets, and automatically routing deliveries to the best possible fleet or driver based on the cost to deliver. The DMP (delivery management platform) must integrate with the retailer’s delivery providers, in order to provide visibility into the cost per delivery. 

For more tips, check out this article on reducing last mile delivery costs.

4. Choice

Put customers in control of their order fulfillment.

Today’s online consumers demand full control over what they want, when they want it and how it is delivered. The key is choice, which for some shoppers takes the form of convenient,  expedited shipping and delivery, even if at cost; for others, it’s slower free shipping. 

You have to move away from ‘it’ll arrive tomorrow’ to ‘it’ll arrive tomorrow between 2-4”. Get more granular in the level of choice you give to your customers. 

Also, how are you charging people for those options? Is it worth it to somebody to add on a $10 delivery fee to get it today, or do you want to give them the option for slower, cheaper shipping? Since order size is tied in as well, do you suggest that they can reduce the delivery fee by increasing the order size? 

Ideally, delivery options should include free delivery (even if slower) as well as premium same and next-day delivery. But keep in mind that offering same day delivery is irrelevant if you don’t have goods located nearby. 

You need to understand your inventory availability on a daily basis, and understand how to manage that. Start by supporting shipping from local stores, dark stores and micro fulfillment centers (MFCs). In fact, we see customers moving to dark stores for delivery, because it’s easier to control the inventory than the inventory in a traditional store. 

Increasingly, retailers have customer-facing traditional brick-and-mortar stores, while using dark stores to fulfill their online orders and inject more delivery options and ‘choice’ into their ecommerce offering. 

Customers are often hunting for the unique selling proposition on a retailer’s site, and it may well end up being a specific delivery option that tempts them to keep shopping.

It’s important to show the user which choices they have – which delivery options are available –  early in the online shopping process, instead of waiting until they reach the checkout page. Put them in control of their order fulfillment.

5. Data

Existing customers are less expensive to retain, because once you start gathering data on their orders, you can start with customized suggestions, becoming proactive in the engagement.

If you know they always order same-day, you can present this as a pre-filled suggestion. If they left feedback previously that the order came early, you can flag the order with a note to the driver not to arrive early. 

Retailers have customer data, but too often they don’t know how to understand or utilize it in order to prevent cart abandonment. 

It’s all about leveraging that data, personalizing the response. When you look at the cart, how personalized an experience can you make it? That’s the question you should be asking.

6. Special offers

There is always one last chance to catch potential customers just as they are in the act of abandoning their cart, or directly after. This might include pop-up screens offering them discounts, free next-day delivery or extended returns policies to complete the shopping cart transaction and build customer loyalty at the same time. 

If they are registered users, then a chain of emails can be put into motion reminding the customer about the products they abandoned, offering to complete the transaction. If that doesn’t work – offers of free shipping, an extended return policy or special discounts can also be offered to close the deal.

If the potential customer is not registered, then cookies can be used to identify a returning user, remind them about the abandoned cart and offer guest checkout options to complete the transaction.

While it’s good to have a strategy for trying to salvage lost online customers and regain eCommerce revenues, it’s even more important to take the right measures for reducing shopping cart abandonment and preventing it wherever possible.

6. Green delivery options

Consumers today (especially young consumers) often look for green options like bag-less deliveries, or ordering with companies that reduce carbon emissions through low or zero-carbon delivery methods.

For these shoppers, green delivery features can be a key differentiator if clearly presented in the checkout process. It can even be a ‘buy in’ option which customers click on, giving them an active role in making their delivery greener. 

Keep in mind that while this is a great differentiator, it only works if the rest of the delivery promises are met.

Harnessing technology to prevent cases of cart abandonment

Reducing that number is the quickest way for retailers to see greater returns from their ecommerce business. But in order to do so, they must be proactive in understanding why their specific shoppers are abandoning carts and following up with actionable solutions to prevent cart abandonment in the future. 

Think about the shopping experience, and any offers made to the customer, as a promise. And when it’s a personalized promise, and the person feels you are engaging with them and their needs, it’s that much more powerful a tool for keeping customers happy, and ready to shop with you again.

Shipping and delivery play an important role in the promises that retailers make to customers, and in the choices (the delivery options) they offer them. Improving delivery from an operational and customer-facing perspective can sway shoppers to take their shopping carts through checkout instead of abandoning them.

Providing this level of last mile customization and personalization during online browsing requires a delivery management platform that can automatically identify available delivery options and present the options based on delivery time, or the cost to deliver. It necessitates both backend integration with inventory and eCommerce systems, as well as connections to third party delivery fleets and carriers, and independent crowdsourced delivery drivers.

When retailers apply last mile technology to enable the choices their shoppers want, that’s what will create a competitive level of personalization, visibility, and cost reduction that improves the customer experience and successfully reduces cart abandonment. 

The post 7 Tactics to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment Rates appeared first on Bringg.

The underlying data and context behind the findings present a very different picture: e-commerce is still experiencing significant growth, sustaining its level of online retail sales and growing at an impressive rate – by 2026, one of three products will be purchased online.

Worldwide e-commerce market activity remains strong

The pandemic accelerated growth and brought the vast majority of retailers and developing economies online, resulting in today’s astounding $5.2 trillion worldwide e-commerce market that has not only sustained itself, but continues to grow at a healthy rate. 

Even if we are talking about going from 17% annual growth during the pandemic to an estimated average annual growth of 14% through 2026,  it’s still impressive – especially during uncertain economic times. 

The US apparel market, which is the main use case cited in the article, has always challenged e-retailers. Product returns for clothes are twice as high as in any other sector, with customers replacing fitting room try-ons with ‘bracketing’, or buying multiple items with the intent to return in bulk.

While some consumers might be going back to shop in-store, this is not necessarily the case for other retail segments. 

The first wave has left a lasting impression

What we can agree on is that the growth of e-commerce comes in waves.

While the wave caused by the pandemic might be receding, the second, more controlled and sustainable wave, is on the way. We anticipated this phenomenon when the pandemic initially broke out and are now seeing it play out in real life.

The restrictions on in-store shopping imposed by the pandemic pushed up online numbers, but no one ever considered this level of growth to be sustainable. Now that consumers are returning to stores, it may slow the growth of online retail sales, but those same consumers also go online to shop at those same stores if they aren’t feeling well or just don’t have the time to go out. 

The numbers may have shifted, but the change in consumer behavior in the form of online shopping is here to stay.

The second wave will be less dramatic and more sustainable

Even before the pandemic, we estimated that the big move of retailers to online will happen in two waves. 

The first wave would be more chaotic, sporadic and scattered, as retailers scrambled to find immediate solutions to address fast-growing demand. Unfortunately, this has resulted in unsustainable in-house solutions and a patchwork of different tools and applications supplied by multiple vendors.

While the first wave was great for turning e-commerce into a must-have and forcing all major retailers into the arena, it also demanded a deep change in thinking, one which many established brick and mortar companies were not ready to embrace. This is changing as market forces and a new generation of consumers are demanding more online options, even for in-store experiences.

Once the dust settles, the second wave will begin based on much more strategic and rational thinking. After getting over the initial shock, even the most diehard brick and mortar retailers realized that to be a serious player in the online world, they need to embark on a journey of digital transformation that addresses the last mile: from the pre-purchase experience, through last mile delivery and fulfillment, tracking and communication to consumers, to the post purchase experience – returns and rating. 

To orchestrate the last mile successfully, retailers should be on the lookout for a delivery management platform that includes (at least) these fundamental capabilities:

• Integrated into the IT stack, automated and scalable to meet evolving business needs and consumer demand for a seamless omnichannel experience.
• Connected to a large network of drivers and delivery providers to support capacity needs especially during peak times.
• Visibility into all last mile operations with ability to optimize routes and make smart decisions in real time.
• Keeps consumer data with the retailer for analysis and continuous improvements.
• Open to an ecosystem of partners that can complement and augment the retailer’s offerings.

Our outlook for ecommerce is sustained growth

It seems that we are now at the beginning of the second wave, as witnessed by the market growing at a more rational pace. This gives both retailers and delivery management platform vendors the time to calmly consider the real market requirements for today’s level of online shopping, while preparing for the phygital world with built-in scalability and innovative technologies like machine learning, to cope with tomorrow’s growth as well.

The post E-Commerce is Alive and Growing appeared first on Bringg.

Where have All the Drivers Gone?

There are many reasons why there is a shortage of delivery drivers. One could always consider the Great Resignation, which certainly affected transportation and shipping as well as other sectors of the economy with a chronic shortage of workers.

Then there is the sharp increase in demand for home delivery over the past decade, which has resulted in a delivery driver unemployment rate of about 3% which can’t get much lower.

Last but not least, when looking towards the next generation, the sad reality is that the average age of delivery drivers is well over 40, which means when they retire, there is no one to replace them.

Shifting to a Multi-source Driver Paradigm 

Companies have reached their internal capacities, and are now seeking innovative ways to engage third-party contractors and independent drivers – whether they’re professional or not.

A great example is the two retail giants that are supplementing their home delivery capabilities through programs such as Amazon’s Delivery Service Partner Program (DSP) and Walmart’s Spark driver program. 

What’s clear is that to meet the demand for delivery, a combination of internal fleets, delivery service providers and driver networks must be used to keep packages coming, and customers happy.

Managing Drivers is the Real Challenge

The encouraging news is that while the pool of in-house professional drivers is shrinking, the gig economy consisting of independent contractors and non-professional drivers, is booming. 

With the demand for last mile delivery growing at a breakneck speed, there is no choice for retailers but to leverage outsourced and independent drivers. The downside is that tapping into these sources of delivery drivers can result in a management nightmare.

Last Mile Delivery Management Platforms are the Real Solution

In that case, the real solution to the last mile driver delivery dilemma is not the drivers, but the software that can manage them. This requires taking all the information about in-house drivers, independent contractors and delivery service providers and automatically assigning the right deliveries to the right drivers, while optimizing for the lowest costs and fastest delivery times.

At the end of the day, it is a delivery management platform (DMP) that can take all these disparate instruments and orchestrate them into a beautiful symphony of smooth and consistent last mile delivery experiences.

Conclusion

When the future is unpredictable, to stay in the game brands must think two steps (at least) ahead. To keep shoppers both happy and loyal, retailers need a way to maximize deliveries, better handle fluctuations in demand, and reduce operational cost. 

This is where Bringg comes in with the most comprehensive, data-driven last mile DMP. Today, a DMP is a must-have when it comes to ensuring a unified shopping journey, alongside a flawless delivery experience. 

We are democratizing the last mile to make delivery and fulfillment accessible and scalable to all. And, part of this entails empowering brands to orchestrate their delivery capacity with seamless access to a massive network of independent drivers. 

We can enable brands to orchestrate their delivery capacity by:

• Connecting to multiple sources of drivers (own fleet, delivery hub, driver network) 
• Measuring cost per delivery, performance and customer satisfaction
• Optimizing resources to drive cost down, and customer loyalty up

Using the latest technologies, we are able to optimize last mile delivery and increase cost efficiencies to the benefit of retailers and their customers. 

The post An Independent Driver Network – a Digital Approach to Last Mile Delivery Solutions appeared first on Bringg.

Last year, we released our 2021 Bringg Barometer. The report covered the state of retail fulfillment and delivery and 2021 priorities. We were able to use the survey of 1000 US enterprise retailers and our own customers to evaluate top pains across enterprise retail as well as delivery and fulfillment strengths and priorities as eCommerce demand continues to grow. 

Several top pains focused retail complexity around scaling delivery and in-store fulfillment. For example, retailers cited a lack of visibility, brand control, and cost efficiency as challenges when working with external delivery fleets. While about a third of retailers and brands surveyed reported that they are prioritizing adding alternative pickup locations and BOPIS over the next six to 12 months, helping scale click and collect. 

2020 put an enormous amount of pressure on eCommerce, leaving retailers in a rush to implement fulfillment capabilities that met changing consumer behaviors and demands. Retailers must now prioritize delivery and fulfillment operations to see greater operational efficiencies and provide premium customer experiences. This will create market demand for more delivery capacity, greater tech innovation and stronger partnerships.

At Bringg, we recognized that to continue to be a trusted partner and help our customers adjust to these capabilities, it was important for us to make changes internally. As a result, we refreshed our technology and our entire brand to ensure that our customers are adequately supported now and in the future. Our new brand reflects the changes of the market and is structured to prioritize customer success. Our technology and customer support teams now move at the same speed, if not faster, than the market dictates to help our customers make the necessary adjustments to stay ahead of consumer demand. 

I am really proud of our transformation to become the most efficient and fast solution on the market and confident that our customers will appreciate our continued focus on innovation and agility so that they may always provide exceptional customer experiences. 

The post From Retail Disruption to Market Eruption appeared first on Bringg.

At Bringg, we encourage our employees to adopt a healthy and active lifestyle. We also challenge our people to consistently try new things. Every year, we sponsor Bringgsters to run races and provide coaching to all participants. This year was a bit different, to say the least.

No longer could we go on runs together, or cluster around the office kitchen and share battle stories of our fastest, or longest, or hardest run. So like any good SaaS company, when the market changes, you pivot and change with it. Enter the world of virtual events and charity runs!

Launching the BringgGood virtual run was about more than recreating our running camaraderie remotely. I wanted it to take on a bigger purpose.

Like everyone else, the global pandemic made me restructure my priorities. We all found meaning in simple things. And for many, it also meant a time of struggle: a struggle with health, or finances, or mental health, or all of the above. So a charity run where donations go to a foundation that supports people in need seemed a perfect way to give our running additional meaning.

Another way to make this event greater than before was to make it global. Usually, each of Bringg’s global offices sponsors its own races, based on the local racing calendar. Rather than each office running its own event, this was an opportunity to do a single, large, company-wide event. With that, we check off two more boxes: more people and more countries all at the same time.

Then we really got creative. We turned it into a virtual global event that extended participation beyond employees to the entire Bringg community – including customers, partners, and board members. And when all these groups came together, it was no longer a company event, or even a charity event. It was a community event.

It was truly inspiring to see how many of us Bringgsters were willing to go the distance (literally) when there was a bigger cause. That sense of belonging was what created this community.

Little did I think that the effects of the event would stretch beyond its original purpose. We realized that this event not only challenged each individual running, and contributed to a charity, but it also brought our community together through a shared purpose.

It was great to hear of so many stories of personal conquest. One person ran their first 5K, another did their first 28K, a third ran their very first time, and some experienced runners went the full marathon distance. Each person proudly pushed themselves to do more, knowing that for each mile they run, Bringg would donate to the Ronald McDonald Charity House.

What was also amazing is the change it brought about in our work culture. At a time when people are used to sitting at their zoom meetings all day, it suddenly became acceptable and even normal to speak with team members while they run! It relaxed us all and allowed us to see life ‘beyond the screen’.

At a time when our company was challenged with connecting our people, the training and running brought us all together.

New employees who never met their colleagues, and who had difficulty absorbing the company DNA while working remote, were suddenly immersed in a sense of belonging to a group of individuals they never met in person. Customers got a sneak peak into the culture behind the technology and actively ‘bought into’ this ethos of striving to do more and be more.

These times of uncertainty and difficulty will pass. And looking forward, we aim to continue to inspire people, both as individuals, and as company, to do more and be more for ourselves and for the people around us. To ‘walk the talk’ has become a core Bringg value for 2021, and I look forward to seeing how we flex this muscle next year.

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To no one’s surprise, logistics companies are being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of eCommerce delivery right now. UPS restricted shipping on from Gap and Nike orders, and even purportedly told drivers to stop picking up orders entirely from some large brands. This repeats a pattern we saw earlier this year, when multiple delivery providers warned of increasing shipping costs for large retailers. The traditional delivery model is breaking under the overwhelming volume of eCommerce orders.

It’s not the fault of these logistics companies – they’re actually facing serious challenges of demand to increase revenues and efficiency while managing shipper satisfaction and ensuring faster, more accurate delivery times with a shrinking hiring pool for drivers (but I’ll touch on that in another post).

Nonetheless, it’s a problem that delivery companies face, and they’re reacting to it in in three ways:

1. Hire more drivers. This is not a viable solution; temporarily hiking up manpower every time volume goes up is costly, and sometimes impossible to do, thanks to a dearth in delivery drivers.

With the load overwhelming everyone everywhere, the fight, cost and availability of delivery drivers is not what it used to be. Traditional delivery companies also have to deal with competition from VC-backed companies that have deep pockets and can more easily afford demand-driven expansion costs.

2. Increase prices. When delivery companies raise shipping prices, the retailers either have to eat up the extra cost, or let it drip down to the customer in the form of higher delivery prices – just when consumers place a high value on free delivery. Both are bad options, as retailers are already under pressure from Covid-19 and consumers want to pay less for delivery as time passes.

3. Add shipping limits for some shippers, i.e. the approach we’re seeing now from UPS (and probably other logistics companies). What happens when shippers exceed their pre-set delivery quota? Many orders simply won’t be delivered.

Any one of these would be a bad solution that hurts shippers just when delivery has become their lifeline, with online sales reaching historic highs and physical store traffic at an all-time low.

The current imbalance in fulfillment capacity and order volume will have immediate, serious ramifications on their market share. Even when a retailer’s orders get on a truck, the fulfillment experience is still in jeopardy, with 64% of providers reporting that they dealt with more late or failed deliveries than what is typical.

This is a situation that is here to stay, and will only grow more acute over time. A long-term solution is needed; brands should consider this a clarion call to rethink how they fulfill online orders.

What can retailers do to guarantee eCommerce fulfillment capacity?

Retailers can take one or more approaches:

Turn to alternative fulfillment options. Click & collect sales are expected to rise by 21% to $101B in 2022 – now is the time to embrace click and collect options.

Curbside pickup and BOPIS are the fastest-growing delivery methods, according to a recent PYMNTS.com study. Most curbside implementation as of now has been in grocery; it’s time that other retailers launch or expand their pickup options to manage eCommerce fulfillment costs at scale and provide the convenient options customers expect to see at checkout.

Work with multiple delivery partners. Using a single delivery provider inevitably leaves brands open to capacity issues. Instead, they can turn to a delivery and fulfillment platform that helps you work with multiple delivery partners, flexibly playing with loads according to the peaks and drops in demand.

I strongly recommend platforms that can implement different business models and execute them in real time, as demand fluctuates and retailers need a sophisticated system to deal with the customer experience and manage costs.

Build a hybrid model that can deliver in all places, with complete control over the delivery process. By ‘hybrid’, I mean the ability to use your own employees or even an internal fleet as well as third party fleets. Your fleet can manage a set load of orders, with excess orders being sent automatically to third party fleets. Ideally, the logic behind which orders go to each fleet should be something you can set, based on your business logic (costs, premium delivery options for subscribed customers, etc.) and operational needs such as time-to-deliver and fleet availability.

These solutions can be implemented as part of an omni-channel fulfillment strategy that places the customer at the center. Your customer wants to do pickup? Great, they’ll get their package quickly and save both of you the cost of delivery. They want delivery? Make on-demand delivery available via third party fleets, and incentivize cheaper planned delivery.

The choice of solution must be based on what your customers want, and what will work based on your specific business requirements. Retailers can choose all and any of these options by using a unified delivery and fulfillment platform that can launch and scale multiple fulfillment models fast. Either way, the clock is ticking. Retailers need to adopt demand-driven fulfillment strategies, so they don’t find themselves dropped or priced out of delivery services by logistics providers just when order volume is highest.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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A recent survey by Oracle cites that 66% of respondents will prefer home delivery over other fulfillment methods. The pandemic is forcing those consumers who would normally have purchased a gift in-store to add to the already high seasonal shipping volume.

This leaves delivery and logistics providers scampering to hire. – Fedex, U.S. Postal Service, Chewy, UPS, have hired thousands of seasonal employees. And Amazon Flex, Uber and Lyft are all offering programs to incentivize crowdsourced delivery drivers to focus in on their apps. With delivery capacity being challenged with growing delivery volumes, this fight to win drivers makes sense, right?

The burden of this question is twofold; yes you need more drivers, but drivers don’t necessarily solve the real problem.

Delivery volumes have been growing for years, and yes, they skyrocketed because of COVID. But there is another factor besides volume, and that’s speed. Delivery time frames are getting faster and faster.

Customers expect their deliveries to come quickly, they are less forgiving to delays and they want the constant control afforded by real-time visibility and an abundance of communication tools that provide immediate validation. Now retailers and their logistics partners need to fill those demands. So will more drivers do that? Well, it helps, but what it really boils down to is the ability to scale efficiently.

You can have tons of drivers. They can be out on the road moving goods, but meeting volume with capacity alone does not necessarily address customer experience and operational efficiency. In fact, sometimes it may complicate it.

Scaling your delivery fleets and drivers must go hand in hand with scaling your infrastructure. When retailers look to logistics providers to scale their fulfillment models, they must contend with more technology, more personas and more processes (which may be different with each delivery partner). When logistics providers extend their fleets, both internally and externally, they need to contend with the same.

Scaling your fulfillment and delivery operations for peak operations requires some key elements – data, automation, orchestration and real-time visibility and control. With these elements working together retailers and logistics providers can scale up and optimize their operations so that they can take on more drivers, shorter delivery cycles, new fulfillment services and improved customer experiences.

Solving the capacity issue is critical but providers and brands must ensure that it does not come at the expense of customer experience.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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This year has been a whirlwind for Bringg, our customers, the ecosystem and every consumer expecting their goods to be delivered to their door. We had to grow really fast, make some big changes, release new products, educate a changing market and so much more. But most importantly, we had to ensure that we provided our customers with the technology and support they needed to get through this unprecedented time.

And together with our customers, we enabled the retail and logistics ecosystem with a usable, accessible and valuable solution – a solution that was recognized by Gartner, a global leading advisory firm. I think that this was the cherry on top of 2020!

According to Gartner’s Joanne Joliet, Senior Director Analyst, “Many retailers still struggle with the last mile as permutations of fulfillment choices expanded to include shipping, click and collect, curbside pickup and delivery – all while trying to excel at multifleet management.” The report continues to say that “Retail CIOs should consider these Cool Vendors that enable retailers to make accurate and speedy business decisions, minimize waste, orchestrate fulfillment flexibility and increase customer loyalty.”

Read the full story: Bringg named a Gartner Cool Vendor in Food Retail

At Bringg, our mission statement answers to just that. We help brands scale up and optimize their business by quickly enabling new fulfillment and delivery models that maximize customer experience, optimize operations and scale up the business. But what does that mean, or what did that mean in 2020….

Now more than ever, today’s consumers demand convenient, flexible fulfillment. This is an entry point for customer loyalty and market share. However, this entry point comes with a high burden to retailers.

Retailers must continue to protect margins and be profitable while carrying the last mile costs, traditionally carried out by the consumer. To do this, companies must digitize and connect their existing supply chain systems, and orchestrate fulfillment models based on machine learning and industry best practices. This requires automation and data analytics.

And that is the heart of Bringg. This is how we help retailers optimize logistics operations for greater cost efficiency while always delivering an exceptional customer experience. This is how retailers will continue to differentiate, meet increasing demand, and gain market share. And this is why I think we are a Cool Vendor.

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