Heeding the Call of Shippers: What 3PLs must know to survive the e-commerce revolution

Managing expectations

As the industry moves forward, RLA’s Sciarrotta said 3PLs “need to recognize that they have a lot of business coming their way, and that the retail shippers have higher expectations that are coming from the consumers.”

One of the major expectations, said ARC’s Cunnane, is ever-shrinking delivery time frames. “Smaller retailers, in particular, have felt this pressure,” he said. “Many of these companies simply cannot keep up with the shipping demand and have turned to 3PLs to manage the final mile.”

Sciarrotta said one of the greatest 3PL challenges on the horizon will be the consumers’ demand for same-day shipments. “We’re not there yet, but I’ve seen it happen,” he said. “And companies like Uber are trying to get into that last-mile space as well. They can do bigger than a 50-pound package, but they can’t do a pallet.”

So, is the industry really changing to meet these e-commerce needs? “It’s mixed,” said UPS’ Hudson. “Some traditional 3PLs are trying to pivot, we’re seeing that,” he said. “But there are others that have entered the market with e-commerce shippers as their focus. We still see it as an opportunity market that perhaps in a bit underserved.”