Peter Somers began his reply by stating that e-commerce was now changing to q-commerce or “quick-commerce”. Thanks to the pandemic, many companies have come up to cater to this niche and their business has grown dramatically in the last 18 to 20 months. “Today, people want instant delivery. It’s not about next day delivery anymore its instant delivery and instant gratification,” said Mr Somers.
For Emirates Post it’s potentially a new area of competition that is coming up rapidly. “With Talabats and Deliveroos delivering food in 20 minutes, why not other items?” he asked.
With the lockdowns of the last 18 months e-commerce has received a massive boost, particularly in the Middle East which was lagging behind the rest of the world. This is good for the last-mile logistics business in the region, said Mr Somers.
As for capacity expansion, in terms of people and vehicles, Emirates Post has managed to solve that problem but it’s still not solved globally, according to Mr Somers. With the holiday season coming up in Europe companies have hugely scaled up capacities. However, with the prospect of lock downs resuming again in some countries there what will happen over the coming weeks is “a big question mark”.
