KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 16): Logistics will go through a paradigm shift following the growing ecommerce, according to logistics experts.

“My belief is that it’s (the shift) not going to be easy. The customers are going to want to push the cost down. [But], the good news is as online catches more and more of the [retail] market share, density will increase,” said Lazada Malaysia chief operating officer Kevin Lee at the second Global Logistics and Supply Chain (GLCS) breakfast series today.

He added there is a lot of room for improvement and efficiency in terms of optimisation and it will grow in stages, as density (volume) grows.

Meanwhile, NinjaVan country head Adzim Halim urged that the need to change consumer behaviour about the way parcels are delivered, is key right now.

“If I told you five years ago, that on an app, someone will come to pick you up and you can go into some random person’s car, you will say you’re not going into some random person’s car. But now, Uber and Grab are worth billions,” said Adzim.

Adzim opined there will be insufficient drivers for delivery, as ecommerce is growing. Hence, he added there will be a shift in how parcels will be delivered to meet demand.

He noted on the need to unify logistics players, in order to fully utilise the spare capacity. For instance, a food delivery service could also deliver parcels.

“There will definitely be a lot of channels that parcels could be delivered. I think that will definitely change. It’s been only [the] delivery man for too long, in the same way where there are the taxis for too long,” Adzim added.