E-commerce marking up logistics costs

A recently released British survey of logistics firms supports research in other markets which shows that online shopping is pushing up logistics costs, with packaging being one of the main contributors. In the British survey by Antalis, 21% of logistics operators said they expected the main operational challenge for their business over the next 1-2 years would be snowballing costs due to the growth of online shopping. A third of respondents – including businesses that operate up to 3 200 distribution sites across the UK – were planning to contain costs by improving their packaging recycling rates as well as adopting more eco-friendly packaging. Some 20% of those polled said they were interested in smarter packaging to improve sustainability, reducing the level of plastics in their packaging, and improving their customer experience. Improved packaging was also seen by 17% of respondents as a way to prevent a rising level of damages associated with online purchases.