A Study on Last-Mile Delivery and Returns in UAE

Abstract

With omnichannel retailers, customers shop through several sales channels, including online and physical in-store shopping. The last mile has a critical and massive impact on customer shopping decisions, retailers’ trust and repeat experience. Furthermore, online customers may have different requirements to be satisfied, sometimes customers ask for rush orders, and others ask for a greener order. Delivery and return activities associated with transportation are considered one of the major contributors to CO2 emissions in the atmosphere around the world. Therefore, studying the customer’s shopping mode preference and analyzing the associated factors will give a better understanding of the shopper’s and provide the logistics planners with reliable results to improve and optimize their last-mile delivery plans. A survey questionnaire was designed to record the customers’ attitudes for further statistical analysis. The results indicate that factors such as delivery and shipping options, return options and return policy, product availability, store condition, product information, social opinion and busy situations play a role in the customers shopping decisions in UAE. This study also presents an initial framework for building a model to detect frequent shoppers.

Date of Award	Dec 2022
Original language	American English
Supervisor	Andrei Sleptchenko (Supervisor)