Among those who ordered groceries online, 34.1% had ordered from Amazon. Despite the overwhelming consumer demand for grocery delivery, Amazon has reliably met communicated delivery times (though delivery windows can be scarce). But the imperfect conditions under which Amazon is currently delivering groceries could be a lot worse. Amazon’s sizable 2019 investments in scaling warehouses and last-mile logistics for next-day Prime shipping put the company in a position to reasonably support the recent demand spike.
“One added wrinkle to frictionless shipping has been contactless delivery, where delivery workers will drop off groceries and other packages at the customer’s doorstep without direct in-person interaction,” said Andrew Lipsman, eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence and author of our new “Frictionless Commerce 2020” report. “While this has already been the norm for most delivery packages, grocery and other food deliveries tended to be higher-touch interactions. In the age of the coronavirus, this potential friction point has been removed.
“Even as the pandemic accelerates demand for the current incarnation of fast, free and frictionless delivery, the next wave of innovation—drone deliveries—inches even closer.”
The technology, sophisticated enough to handle a range of delivery types, is being piloted in several countries, including the US. Though limited by weight (most can handle only a few pounds of load), drone deliveries lack many constraints of traditional ground deliveries.
Because drones can travel about 80 miles per hour while avoiding traffic, deliveries from a local store to one’s doorstep can be made in a matter of minutes. This opens a world of potential for local merchants. Alphabet subsidiary Wing, for example, is currently making local drone deliveries of gelato and coffee in its test market of Christiansburg, Virginia. Previously, those sorts of orders were impractical and cost-prohibitive. Though still several years away from reaching scale and with plenty of regulatory hurdles to surmount, drone delivery has potential to reduce friction in a way that brings a whole new class of transactions online.