HYPERLOCAL ON-DEMAND DELIVERY DISRUPTING BUSINESSES AND CONSUMER PREFERENCES

Smartphones is the game-change that has revolutionised ‘on-demand delivery’ business ecosystem. It has led to the emergence of the ‘on-demand economy’ by transforming traditional businesses over the years at a much faster rate than expected. The ‘coronavirus pandemic’ has further forced laggards to adopt ‘on-demand’ delivery as a faster alternation option for all most all types and category of services and products. It has rather fuelled the growth of ‘on-demand’ delivery due to imposition of curbs like quarantine, lockdown and ‘work from home’ culture among consumer of both products and services.

From hailing a cab to getting a spa massage, buying groceries, alcohol to ordering food, purchasing medicine, cloths, shoes to renting furniture, looking for a carpenter, driver, plumber to ordering fuel at doorstep, the innovative on-demand apps have made our life much easier than before. It has redefined the consumers’ buying patterns, choice and preference leading to a paradigm shift in the overall consumer behaviour.

Adding fuel to this new age business revolution are new-age technology namely ‘Internet of Things’, ‘Artificial Intelligence, ‘Virtual Reality’, ‘Augmented Reality’, and the likes. These new-age technologies have transformed the traditional business to look for intelligent applications and solutions to retain existing customers while targeting prospective customers at a much lower cost.

Going by business segment or categories, be it transportation and logistics, banking and finance, healthcare services, to consumer goods, the ‘on-demand’ delivery model has expedited the growth of industry verticals and encouraged enterprises to automate their service delivery.

DISRUPTION IN HYPERLOCAL ON-DEMAND HOME DELIVERY:

Hyperlocal on-demand home delivery has been further categorised service delivery models into ‘scheduled based home deliveries’ and ‘subscription-based home deliveries’.

Subscription-based home delivery is planned and recurring, whereas scheduled delivery operates, both on the customer side and business side and are planned by time and location which is more convenient for one or more of the parties involved.

Such disruption has led to the addition of new services and products wherein a large number of start-ups are operating with innovative business models. In the year 2021 and beyond, on-demand home delivery will become the ‘go-to option’ for the majority of on-demand delivery businesses.

ON-DEMAND FUEL DELIVERY AS A CASE STUDY:

Hyperlocal on-demand fuel delivery is one such industry vertical that has emerged over the years propelled by demand from sectors like real estate and housing, transporters fleet (cars, buses, and trucks), hospitals, educational institutions, religious institutions, mining industry and the likes.

Start-ups have emerged in different parts of the country enabling consumers to fill and refill their vehicles and generator sets by just making a few taps on the phone. This has led to the addition of new product delivery as an on-demand home delivery service.

Such on-demand delivery service can deliver fuel anywhere like at home, office, gym, parking lots, or when vehicle runs out of fuel in the middle of nowhere.

On-demand fuel delivery also saves consumers from the pain of waiting in the never-ending queues of the fuel filling stations. Further, it provides fast, convenient, and safe fuel delivery services which is a ‘never before’ experience for consumers and is indeed the reason why there is a huge acceptance of these services.

On-demand fuel delivery is fast becoming inseparable from the life of consumers even after the coronavirus pandemic as it offers top-notch services with speed, agility and convenience.

IN CONCLUSION:

It can be said that on-demand home delivery services will continue to disrupt many industry verticals with advances in technology applications coming into play. It will create fierce competition among service providers to deliver in as much as minimum time with high quality.

E-com giant Amazon, AliBaba-backed Big Basket, Swiggy and Zomato received permission for alcohol home delivery to customers in select states was a welcome move among the ease of restrictions implicated during lockdown 3.0 last year.

If alcohol can be home delivered, why not the case for all types of fuel which is an essential commodity like grocery and food. This will have cascading effect on the overall economy. So the time is ripe for a policy shift towards the delivery of all types of fuel at the doorstep. Point to ponder!