IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i15p11588-d1203651.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Leveraging Drone Technology for Last-Mile Deliveries in the e-Tailing Ecosystem

Author

Listed:
  • Hokey Min

    (Allen and Carol Schmidthorst College of Business, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA)

Abstract

The extended lockdown and limited in-person interactions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic have radically changed many consumers’ shopping behavior. These changes include a rapid rise in online shopping, leading to the fast growth of e-logistics. As the popularity of e-logistics has spread worldwide, many retailers’ success hinges on their ability to deliver products to their consumers’ doorsteps. This ability cannot be nurtured without handling last-mile delivery services in a cost-efficient and sustainable way. However, last-mile delivery services pose unique and complex challenges since they require individual, door-to-door services that limit the opportunity to consolidate small shipments into large ones and thus increase cost burdens for retailers selling products online. These challenges call for new, innovative ways of managing last-mile delivery services. Such practices include utilizing emerging drone technology that allows retailers to deliver products from point to point ubiquitously without a pilot, driver, or vehicle consuming too much fossil fuel. This paper is one of the first studies to develop viable strategic plans for commercializing drone technology in the e-tailing ecosystem using visual decision-aid tools and performance management systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Hokey Min, 2023. "Leveraging Drone Technology for Last-Mile Deliveries in the e-Tailing Ecosystem," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-11, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:15:p:11588-:d:1203651
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/15/11588/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/15/11588/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Techane Bosona, 2020. "Urban Freight Last Mile Logistics—Challenges and Opportunities to Improve Sustainability: A Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-20, October.
    2. Hokey Min, 2023. "Supply chain crisis management in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic," International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 44(1), pages 1-16.
    3. Kim, Yeonsu & Kang, Jisoo & Chun, Hyunbae, 2022. "Is online shopping packaging waste a threat to the environment?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Liu, Xiaodi & Zhou, Zengze & Yuen, Kum Fai & Wang, Xueqin, 2024. "Green and gamified! An investigation of consumer participation in green last-mile from a gamification affordance perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shang, Yunfeng & Zong, Yi, 2024. "Role of e-commerce for promoting sustainability in the mining sector," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    2. Filip Škultéty & Dominika Beňová & Jozef Gnap, 2021. "City Logistics as an Imperative Smart City Mechanism: Scrutiny of Clustered EU27 Capitals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-16, March.
    3. Li, Zhaotong & Wu, Min & Teo, Chee-Chong & Yuen, Kum Fai, 2024. "An investigation of consumer switching intention on the use of automated courier station from a signaling perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    4. Patrick Klein & Bastian Popp, 2022. "Last-Mile Delivery Methods in E-Commerce: Does Perceived Sustainability Matter for Consumer Acceptance and Usage?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-27, December.
    5. Milovan Kovač & Snežana Tadić & Mladen Krstić & Miloš Veljović, 2023. "A Methodology for Planning City Logistics Concepts Based on City-Dry Port Micro-Consolidation Centres," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-21, July.
    6. Hanna Vasiutina & Vitalii Naumov & Andrzej Szarata & Stanisław Rybicki, 2023. "Influence of Transport Demand Parameters on Environmental Pollution for Deliveries by Cargo Bikes in City Areas with Traffic Restrictions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-18, September.
    7. Anastasia D. Mitropoulou & Giannis T. Tsoulfas, 2021. "Using a Modified SERVQUAL Approach to Assess the Quality of Supply Chain Services in Greek Online Supermarkets," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-17, October.
    8. Vitalii Naumov & Olha Shulika & Oleksandra Orda & Hanna Vasiutina & Marek Bauer & Myroslav Oliskevych, 2022. "Shaping the Optimal Technology for Servicing the Long-Distance Deliveries of Packaged Cargo by Road Transport," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-17, June.
    9. Andrea Temporelli & Paola Cristina Brambilla & Elisabetta Brivio & Pierpaolo Girardi, 2022. "Last Mile Logistics Life Cycle Assessment: A Comparative Analysis from Diesel Van to E-Cargo Bike," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-18, October.
    10. Oleksandra Osypchuk & Katarzyna Sosik, 2021. "Impact of the Construction Supplies Implementation on Road Safety in the City Center: A Case Study of the City of Szczecin," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-15, February.
    11. Łukasz Sułkowski & Katarzyna Kolasińska-Morawska & Marta Brzozowska & Paweł Morawski & Tomasz Schroeder, 2022. "Last Mile Logistics Innovations in the Courier-Express-Parcel Sector Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-25, July.
    12. Oleksandra Osypchuk & Stanisław Iwan, 2023. "Analysis of Selected Solutions for Sustainable Urban Deliveries in the Construction Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-18, February.
    13. Crainic, Teodor Gabriel & Perboli, Guido & Rei, Walter & Rosano, Mariangela & Lerma, Veronica, 2024. "Capacity planning with uncertainty on contract fulfillment," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 314(1), pages 152-175.
    14. Mohamed Amr Sultan & Tomaž Kramberger & Mahmoud Barakat & Ahmed Hussein Ali, 2023. "Barriers to Applying Last-Mile Logistics in the Egyptian Market: An Extension of the Technology Acceptance Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-25, August.
    15. Vasco Silva & António Amaral & Tânia Fontes, 2023. "Sustainable Urban Last-Mile Logistics: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-27, January.
    16. Song, Jiawen & Cai, Lanhui & Yuen, Kum Fai & Wang, Xueqin, 2023. "Exploring consumers’ usage intention of reusable express packaging: An extended norm activation model," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    17. Giacomo Lozzi & Gabriele Iannaccone & Ila Maltese & Valerio Gatta & Edoardo Marcucci & Riccardo Lozzi, 2022. "On-Demand Logistics: Solutions, Barriers, and Enablers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-21, August.
    18. Daniela Ambrosino & Carmine Cerrone, 2022. "A Rich Vehicle Routing Problem for a City Logistics Problem," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-13, January.
    19. Hokey Min, 2023. "Exploring the Commercialization of Smart Rural Energy in Times of Energy Supply Chain Disruptions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-14, July.
    20. Lehua Bi & Shaorui Zhou & Jianjie Ke & Xiaoming Song, 2023. "Knowledge-Mapping Analysis of Urban Sustainable Transportation Using CiteSpace," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-29, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:15:p:11588-:d:1203651. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.