Countries like China are already experimenting with them.
The enormous technological potential of China and the online shopping platform Alibaba (Aliexpress) are experimenting during this 2021 with the deployment of some 1,000 delivery robots that perform the same delivery tasks as a human.
The Asian retail giant, what would become the Amazon of Asia, assures that these robots, which are totally autonomous, are also a fast, reliable and relatively cheap way to satisfy the enormous demand for orders that the platform manages in China. , the world's largest marketplace for online shopping.
More efficient than humans
Xiaomanlv robots, (translated into Spanish as little donkey), can deliver around 50 packages at a time and up to 500 boxes in a day, covering a radius of up to 100 kilometers with a single charge. Alibaba claims that its robots will overcome the problem of what is known as last mile shipping, the final stretch of shipping, when the package reaches our home. This last phase of the process is where there are usually more problems, since the delivery people get lost or are conditioned by the traffic.
Backed by years of research and millions of data points, the company says that unlike human couriers, the robots will be able to deliver without diversions or smoke breaks. To understand why Alibaba is convinced that delivery robots are the future of package delivery, there are several points to consider:
Package Volume
Data from China's postal service shows that the number of packages shipped in the country has increased roughly ninefold in the past eight years. In 2013, 9 billion packages were shipped across the country, while in 2020 that number exceeded 83 billion.
the size of the market
Although the shipment of packages around the world has grown in recent years, the data shows that the large e-commerce companies are far above the rest of the companies. In 2019, consumers received more packages through platforms like Amazon or Aliexpress than through the next top ten companies combined.
Returning to the specific case of China, which, by volume of population, is the one that sets the standard throughout the world, a key factor is that the Asian giant has a rapidly growing urban middle class. The 2019 census reflects that more than 60% of Chinese already live in cities.
The Nordic countries and Korea, the most enthusiastic buyers
Another fun fact is that while China tops almost all internet shopping charts in terms of total numbers, in relative terms Sweden is the king of online ordering worldwide, with over 80% of its population shopping regularly. In the net.
Both Sweden and South Korea do well in global rankings for broadband penetration and internet speed, which could be a factor in why so many people in those countries shop online.
