The Value Proposition of innovative Last-Mile delivery services from the perspective of local retailers

The last-mile (LM) delivery is probably one of the most expensive and complex among global Supply Chain processes, and it suffers from problems such as road traffic congestion. On the other hand, urban goods delivery systems can be held accountable for the same negative externalities they suffer. The complexity of last-mile delivery systems arises from the heterogeneity of stakeholders and their objectives. In this context, local retailers might be called upon to adopt innovative last-mile delivery services offered by Logistics Service Providers (LSPs). The attractiveness of selected LM initiatives to local retailers has been explored by a stream of literature that focuses on the utility provided to the retailer by a sub-set of initiatives s, based on the retailers' preferred requirements. With this paper, we aim to build on this stream of literature by analyzing the perception of local retailers regarding the value proposition of a wider set of LM delivery innovations, including the ones that do not comprise retailers among their paying customers. To this end, a survey is submitted to retailers of different sizes and type located in the limited traffic zone (LTZ) of Turin (Italy). Through the survey, we aim to assess the relative importance of nine service requirements retrieved from literature, and cluster them into factors, i.e. value propositions, by means of a confirmatory factor analysis. Results show that retailers are able to accept higher costs for the delivery for deliveries that are more reliable and for the reduction of stock. Retailers also appear to correlate punctuality and flexibility of the LM delivery service, because flexible and on time deliveries allow for better inventory management, higher control and in turn improved customer service level by the retailer. The convenience of the delivery service is seen as correlated with its sustainability, because logistics activities can be carried out with small and low impact vehicles that allowing easier deliveries into the city center. The highlighted factors serve as a basis for the value propositions to be taken into account by practitioners in the design of LM innovations