A new study has revealed that 78 percent of logistics companies expect to provide same-day delivery by 2023 and 40 percent anticipate delivery within a two-hour window by 2028.

And 87 percent of survey respondents expect to use crowdsourced delivery or a network of drivers that choose to complete a specific order by 2028.

The Future of Fulfillment Vision Study, conducted by Zebra Technologies Corporation, surveyed more than 2,700 professionals globally in transportation and logistics, retail and manufacturing firms.

Respondents were asked how they are preparing to meet the growing needs of the on-demand economy.

Today’s online-buying, smartphone-wielding consumer expects a seamless, faster purchasing journey.

Those surveyed are anticipating disruption led by drones, autonomous vehicles, robotics and crowdsourced delivery.

Key findings

• Only 39 percent of supply chain respondents reported operating at an omnichannel level. The survey found reducing backorders was the biggest challenge to reaching omnichannel fulfillment for one-third of respondents followed by inventory allocation and freight costs.

• 76 percent of surveyed retailers use store inventory to fill online orders, and 86 percent of retail respondents plan to implement buy online/pick up in store in the next year. Retailers are investing in retrofitting stores to double as online fulfilment centres and shrinking selling space to accommodate e-commerce pickups and returns.

• Globally, 87 percent of respondents agreed that accepting and managing product returns is a challenge. The increase in free and fast product delivery corresponds with an increase in product returns, a costly concern that retailers struggle to manage efficiently across many different purchasing models. Seven in 10 surveyed executives agree that more retailers will turn stores into fulfilment centres that accommodate product returns. More than 60 percent of retailers that currently do not offer free shipping, free returns or same-day delivery plan to do so, while 44 percent expect to outsource returns management to a third party.

• Although 72 percent of organizations utilize barcodes today, 55 percent of organizations are still using inefficient, manual pen-and-paper based processes to enable omnichannel logistics. By 2021, handheld mobile computers with barcode scanners will be used by 94 percent of respondents for omnichannel logistics. The upgrade from manual pen-and-paper spreadsheets to handheld computers with barcode scanners or tablets will improve omnichannel logistics by providing more real-time access to warehouse management systems.

• Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology and inventory management platforms are expected to grow by 49 percent in the next few years. RFID-enabled software, hardware and tagging solutions, offer up-to-the-minute, item-level inventory lookup, heightening inventory accuracy and shopper satisfaction while reducing out of stocks, overstocks and replenishment errors.

• Future-oriented decision makers revealed that next generation supply chains will reflect connected, business-intelligence and automated solutions that will add newfound speed, precision and cost effectiveness to transportation and labour. Surveyed executives expect the most disruptive technologies to be drones (39 percent), driverless/autonomous vehicles (38 percent), wearable and mobile technology (37 percent) and robotics (37 percent).

In the Asia-Pacific region 95 percent of respondents rate e-commerce as the driving need for faster delivery.

The region expects to implement same-day delivery faster than any other region, and 42 percent of those surveyed ranked drones as one of the most important disruptive technologies. 

Zebra Technologies Corporation is a market leader in rugged mobile computers, barcode scanners and barcode printers enhanced with software and services to enable real-time enterprise visibility.