In an era where people have increasingly relied on e-commerce, where shopping is all about clicking and waiting for whatever you want, supply chain efficiency has become important than ever before. However, the challenges in the supply chain have made it hard to achieve absolute efficiency to the extent that it is a challenge to shop for some products. This had even become worse during the pandemic when there was a need for protective gear to fight the pandemic. 

The logistics industry continues to flourish, and the demand for faster and effective services has made the last-mile delivery one of the most crucial supply chain components. The last-mile delivery is the process where items from the warehouse are transported to the customer’s address. The US Department of Commerce reports that consumers spent $601.75 billion online shopping with the US-based merchants in 2019 alone, an increase of 14.9% from the previous year. This increase has been consistent for years, and e-commerce is set to overtake physical retail. This is understandable because there has been an increase in the number of people accessing the internet and the surge in the convenience of e-commerce platforms which makes shopping a matter of clicking a few buttons to order an item. However, there are still some challenges that affect the process of last-mile delivery, as shown below.

Labor shortage, transportation and commodities remain the biggest challenges for supply chains. In response to these challenges, suppliers and retailers are adopting new methods to move goods in different ways, such as cargo liners, trains, and trucks provided by the competitors. Although these are just a few ways you can solve the problems in supply chains, there are other options that you may need to enforce complex solutions for the existing challenges. Lack of a concrete strategy to avail the products in the market at the right time will cause problems.