Next in e-commerce: Parcel without the parcels

摘要

MERCHANTS HAVE BEEN DELIVERING dairy, produce and household products to customers for several centuries. And over that period of time, it was either a local merchant or the postal service making that last-mile delivery. In the early 20th century, the "parcel" industry was born with a western regional delivery company that was aptly named United Parcel Service. The invention of delivery vans and international corrugated box standards enabled the rapid adoption of scheduled, multi-day delivery on a national and even international basis, and we saw this mode increase in volume and profits through the early part of the 21st century. Now, the emergence of e-commerce via the Internet changed everything for business and consumers, and parcel has become big business.