Last-mile transport of fragmented deliveries: Delivery preferences of nanostoreowners

Last-mile deliveries to small, independent retailers, or nanostores, are characterized by small shipments. This is partly caused by storeowners who order with multiple suppliers at a high frequency. The purpose of this study is to identify the importance of the main delivery preferences of storeowners and how this affects last-mile deliveries. Surveys are conducted in Jakarta, where most stores are supplied with products of one brand exclusively, and in Belgium, where own account pickups at a wholesaler prevail. In both cases, storeowners find the current way of supply convenient and do not have a direct incentive to change replenishment behavior. Supply is for free, or costs are not considered as such. The impact of online retailing is, however, uncertain.