Roel Gevaers PhD, Professor in Last Mile Logistics and Supply Chain, University of Antwerp, joins me to talk about the log-com bubble. We cover:
- Twenty years after the dot-com bubble, should we prepare for a log-com bubble?
- Quick commerce, easy and cheap money, and the drive to acquire customers/market
- The real business model of IT-driven quick commerce delivery companies such as Gorrilas and Getir
- Business models that are unsustainable in the long term
- Dark stores - mini distribution warehouses
- Necessary density of dark stores to enable fast delivery
- Amsterdam cracking down on dark stores
- Operations inside dark stores
- Delivery rider costs, and the real cost of delivery per order
- Quick commerce start-ups setting up their own retail brands
- Retailers such Carrefour and Jumbo buying shares in quick commerce (ultrafast) delivery companies
- Investors in quick commerce and the end-game
- What conditions will allow ultrafast delivery companies to survive?
- Labour laws in Belgium that directly impact on e-commerce delivery and warehouse operations
- Impact of labour costs and tax regimes on delivery and e-commerce operations
