Delaying Amazon’s Onslaught

Satish Jindel  •  Journal of Commerce


BUSINESS-TO-CONSUMER (B2C) is a seven-day delivery business. Business-to-business (B2B) was and is a five-day business, and did not require or support cost-effective deliveries on Saturdays and Sundays. In 1998, residential deliveries represented 20 percent of the total domestic parcel market, or $5 billion. In 2017, business-to-consumer deliveries will exceed 50 percent and represent $40 billion in market size, which is larger than the total parcel market size in 1998. Yet, the parcel industry until recently was operating on the past premise of weekday deliveries with a surcharge and only with express delivery on Saturdays…