Recently, eBay announced it was testing a mobile same day
delivery solution in San Francisco. Known as “eBay Now”, eBay partners with
such brick and mortar retailers as Target, Best Buy, Toys R Us and Nordstrom
and offers delivery in as little as an hour. An interesting concept, retailers
upload their stores' inventory onto eBay's online marketplace through Milo, a
local shopping start-up that eBay acquired in late 2010. Shoppers involved in
the test can download the app onto mobile devices such as Apple's iPhone and
iPad, and then search for products to buy from local stores in San Francisco.
When they find a product, users press a "Bring It"
button and the order is sent to couriers. The courier closest to the product
accepts the order, drives to the store to pick up the product and then delivers
it to the shopper's home.
Customers pay when the product arrives. They can pay using
PayPal Here, a new service developed by eBay's PayPal unit that accepts credit
and debit card payments through a small swipe device attached to iPhones or
shoppers can pay by logging into their PayPal accounts through an iPhone. EBay
Now couriers have iPhones to accept payments. Delivery fees are waived for the
first three purchased afterwards, there is a $5.00 surcharge.
Google has created a similar product to Milo called Blue Dot
which allows users to search to see if a product is in-stock at nearby stores
by mobile. True, Blue Dot and Milo was originally developed for consumer
research, however, if EBay’s trial is successful; expect Blue Dot to do
something similar. Perhaps partnering up with the likes of UPS, FedEx or the
USPS may be among the thoughts going through Google – After all, UPS began as a
courier-delivery company for brick and mortar retailers over 100 years ago.
Macy’s, the almost 170 year old iconic retailer based in New
York, has embraced the internet and has incorporated it into its overall
strategy – not separately as so many brick and mortars appear to have done. According to Macy’s chief financial officer,
the retailer’s new order fulfillment system is positioning itself to try same
day delivery. Macy's began testing its fulfillment system in 2011 and expanded
it to 280 of about 800 total stores so far this year. These stores act as
warehouses, shipping items to shoppers' homes or to sold-out stores. The
retailer believes in the concept of "buy anywhere" is "fulfill
anywhere”. According to Macy’s, the goal is to optimize inventory for customers
to shop across channels with ease. "We are also beginning to be able to
satisfy online demand with store inventory when the distribution center runs
out of a particular item," noted the company’s spokesperson.
Perhaps the big delivery companies are working towards new product offerings to address this demand? You can bet UPS, FedEx and USPS are taking note in this quest
for same day delivery particularly as couriers sprout up to take advantage of this
opportunity. Not only are couriers such as Postmates and Instacart popping up, don't rule out the regional small parcel providers such as OnTrac, LoneStar and Spee-Dee all of which are more than capable to handle these types of deliveries.
Lots of opportunites - many options for retailers and e-retailers alike. The ability to think outside of the box and embrace change will win the race. However, according to Amazon's CFO, "We don't really see a way to do same-day delivery on a broad scale economically."
Maybe Amazon doesn't see a way, but I bet someone else will.
.
