Someone once told me that business is like a car, the only time it will run by itself is if it’s going downhill. Someone else once told me that the pace of change we are currently experiencing is the slowest it will ever be – it’s only going to get faster.
That’s great news if you are an up-and-coming, agile, market insurgent, hell bent on mixing things up and changing the established order. But it’s not such great news if you are one of the incumbents whose lunch is being eyed-up by hungry upstart startups.
This pressure to stay to keep up with the pace of change was one of the topics of discussion at the Nordic Delivery Conference, where some of the biggest Nordic names, not to mention a well-known UK brand, discussed the consumer revolution affecting the industry.
That consumer-generated pressure for change was also highlighted in some research carried out by MetaPack into what UK shoppers aged 18-24 want from delivery. Spoiler alert: free and fast got top billing. But the infographic from MetaPack is well worth checking out for some of the other findings.
You might have noticed we’ve been writing about Europe a lot lately – that’s nothing to do with anyone in the eDelivery fold carrying out summer holiday research under the pretext of doing some work. Regardless of your own political leanings, if you have any, it is hard to ignore the significance of the oft-discussed and now-anticipated referendum on the UK’s membership of Europe.
Following last week’s piece on the Digital Single Market, Stephen Ferguson of Global Freight Solutions has written a piece giving us his take on the EC’s plans, and some of the implications for UK businesses trading cross-border.
Someone else who has penned an article for us is Jacob Falck of Bring/PostNord in Norway. He’s written about the Norwegian perspective on reverse logistics, and he’s done it in English! While the phenomenon of buying multiple items online with the clear intention of returning some, or even all, of them is not new in the UK, it is in Norway. Coming to terms with this trend, and others, might be made easier for those in the Nordics who can learn from the UK.
And finally, we bring you the story of Kali the polar bear, who was shipped by FedEx to his new home in a US zoo via temperature controlled vehicle.
Now, if all that talk of change and pressure has left you feeling like you can’t bear (sorry, terrible pun) the thought of not being in the know, why not subscribe to eDelivery and get our weekly newsletter summarising the main stories we’ve covered – you’ll find details on that here.
You can also join our LinkedIn group for analysis and networking as it happens, or if you want your updates in real-time find us on Twitter @edeliverynet.
