Gen Z, the digitally native generation born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s, has not only reshaped the way we shop but also revolutionised the expectations surrounding the delivery experience.
With a whopping 98% of tech-savvy Gen Z owning smartphones, 32% of them shop online at least once daily (compared to 25% of millennials, 15% of Gen X and 7% of baby boomers).
This surge in Gen Z’s online shopping activities has spurred the need for efficient, seamless, and tech-driven delivery solutions, forcing the logistics sector to adapt and embrace digital transformations to meet their evolving demands.
“We are constantly exploring opportunities to utilise technology in order to fulfil our customers’ requirements, particularly suited to that of the Gen Z generation.
Our solution, designed to cater to both individual and business needs, seamlessly integrates our app and smart locker system to deliver efficient services to our clients,” says Nicholas Tooze, National pudo Manager.
So, how have the habits and behaviours of Gen Z shoppers influenced the digital transformation of the delivery game?
Demand for Seamless and Efficient Delivery
Gen Z has grown up in the digital age and are accustomed to instant gratification, expecting their online purchases to be delivered quickly and efficiently.
This demand has pushed the logistics sector to adopt technologies that optimize operations for road freight, with 35-40% of delivery companies worldwide implementing such solutions.
Embracing Technology for Customer Connectivity
Gen Z shoppers are highly connected and tech-savvy, relying on their smartphones and apps for various aspects of their lives, including shopping. pudo, a smart locker system tailored for South Africans, has successfully harnessed technology to provide a smooth and effective parcel sending and receiving service.
The app has reported over 250,000+ downloads in under three years, highlighting the Gen Z’s embrace of digital solutions.
Streamlining the Last-Mile Delivery Process
The last-mile delivery process, from the warehouse to the customer’s doorstep, presents challenges for businesses.
Gen Z shoppers, with their high expectations for efficiency and convenience, have driven the need for streamlined last-mile delivery.
pudo addresses this challenge by enabling direct communication between buyers and sellers via their app, allowing parcels to be dropped and collected from smart lockers located nationwide.
This approach minimises address errors, missed deliveries, and the need for multiple delivery attempts.
Alternative Delivery Options and Flexibility
Gen Z shoppers value flexibility and control over their delivery experiences. pudo’s app offers alternative delivery options, such as lockers or partner stores, providing customers with more choices beyond traditional home deliveries, aligning with Gen Z’s preference for contactless deliveries and secure parcel handling.
By offering these options, businesses can reduce the burden on delivery personnel and meet the evolving expectations of Gen Z consumers.
Thriving in the Competitive Landscape
The habits and behaviours of Gen Z shoppers have forced businesses in the logistics sector to adapt to new technologies and fulfil evolving consumer and business requirements.
Digital transformation is no longer just a matter of keeping up with the times; it has become an essential strategy for businesses to thrive in the competitive landscape.
By embracing digital solutions, companies can stay ahead of the curve, meet the expectations of Gen Z customers, and unlock new growth opportunities.
“Gen Z’s shopping habits and behaviours have played a significant role in driving the digital transformation of the logistics sector.
The demand for seamless and efficient delivery, the need for customer connectivity, and the preference for flexibility and alternative delivery options have reshaped the industry.
Embracing digital solutions and staying ahead of evolving consumer expectations are crucial for businesses to succeed in the ever-evolving delivery landscape,” concludes Tooze.
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Home General
Rise of the Machines – Chatbots slated to dominate Customer Service Channels by 2027
by TechBuild.Africa 2023/07/25
Chatbots
By George Muhia, Industry Lead – Africa Digital Natives at Infobip
A survey conducted by Gartner has found that chatbots will become the primary customer service channel for about a quarter of the world’s organisations by the year 2027, having evolved over the past decade into a critical technology component of a service organisation’s strategy.
There can be little doubt that when designed and deployed correctly, chatbots can enhance the Customer Experience (CX) and drive positive customer emotion at a lower cost than live interactions.
However, to effectively deploy and measure chatbot performance, Customer Service and Support (CSS) leaders must create an appropriate deployment strategy based on use cases and service interactions’ complexity.
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The rise of chatbots represents a major shift in the way that businesses interact with customers. By leveraging the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) and natural language processing capabilities, chatbots can provide faster, personalised, and more convenient customer service experiences.
Businesses will undoubtedly reap the benefits of chatbots over traditional service channels, including 24/7 availability, instantaneous responses, and the ability to consistently deliver a standardised reply.
Multilingual capabilities allow chatbots to not only provide support across many different languages, but also communication based on regions, accents and dialects. This broadens the reach of the customer service function and enhances accessibility to key services.
Evolving role of humans
The rise of chatbots does not necessarily spell the end for human customer service agents but will rather see an evolution of their role.
While chatbots will take over mundane and repetitive tasks, humans will be freed up to focus on complex issues and will step in where customers require specialised attention or to deal with sensitive situations that need human judgment, emotional intelligence, or critical thinking.
To deploy chatbots effectively, organisations will need to invest in the right chatbot building platforms that will leverage AI and natural language processing capabilities.
At the same time, humans will still play a critical role in the training and supervision of chatbots. Businesses will thus need to retain the right skills to refine and update their chatbots, constantly improving their conversational abilities.
In order to deliver a high-quality CX, businesses will have to continually monitor and measure the performance of their chatbots to ensure they are working accurately, consistently and within the ethical confines of the engagements happening across their various channels.
This means tracking metrics such as response times, customer satisfaction rates and conversion rates, while also making adjustments as needed to improve performance.
Advanced language models
The emergence of ChatGPT and similar advanced language models has attracted much attention, mainly due to the fact that these AI-driven chatbots have been trained on such huge data sets and have access to the entire internet.
ChatGPT also rates highly on contextual understanding, doing a good job of capturing, interpreting, and understanding the context of a conversation.
Being able to effectively generate responses aligned with a conversation’s history makes engagement more human-like and coherent.
What makes models like ChatGPT even more formidable is a capability called “zero shot learning”, which is the ability to generalise from limited examples or even to provide answers to topics it has not been exposed to.
Hence, such advanced language models are attractive for businesses that want to leverage AI for routine transactions and free up resources for more complex issues.
However, the independence of these models raises questions about their ability to be controlled and whether at some point they will become better than human intelligence or problematic in some way. Unfortunately, there is no clear answer at this stage.
The overarching goal for the development of AI has always been for the technology to complement human beings, rather than to create a situation where it surpasses or exceeds human intelligence.
Yet, the continued development of AI systems does raise ethical questions and makes a strong case for safeguarding policies and procedures to be put in place to regulate what these AI models are ultimately able to do. Still, the optimistic view remains that the combination of humans and AI could provide solutions to even the most complex problems.
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From Massive Layoff to X, Will Twitter’s Rebrand solve its Heavy Debt Load?
by Editor 2023/07/24
Twitter
Credits: Slate
Elon Musk has swapped Twitter’s distinctive bird logo with an X in a bold redesign. Musk shocked the world with his strategies early Sunday. He tweeted on Monday morning, that X.com now redirects to Twitter.com.
“The interim X logo goes live later today,” he said, before uploading a photo of Twitter’s headquarters illuminated by a massive new X.
The Twitter website now has the same logo, but the famous blue bird has vanished. Musk previously stated that he was bidding “adieu to the social platform brand and, gradually, all the birds.”
For more than a decade, the social platform has employed its colorful, widely known blue bird emblem. Thread is a contemporary rival to Twitter, therefore the rebranding might be interpreted as a brand refresh.
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Musk has regularly warned in recent months that Twitter was on the verge of bankruptcy due to significant ad revenue losses.
Adding to the strain, Facebook (FB) parent Meta launched rival social networking site Threads earlier this month. In its first week, it achieved 100 million user sign-ups.
Many people believe that this will negatively affect the giant social media platform, especially when there is an alternative. However, according to Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino, the switch from Twitter to X matches Musk’s aim of transforming the network into an “everything app.”
In a blog post published on Sunday, the CEO stated that X will be “centered on audio, video, messaging, payments/banking.” She also mentioned that the platform would be driven by artificial intelligence.
Let us not forget, though, that the renaming of the social platform is the most significant alteration to the platform since Musk began his turbulent tenure.
Thousands of employees have been laid off, verification checkmarks have been locked behind a paywall, banned usernames such as Andrew Tate and Donald Trump have been reinstated, and reading limits have been implemented but this did not stop Twitter from losing many to Thread.
Many say that his lax approach to moderation has resulted in the social platform losing nearly half of its advertising revenue since he bought the firm. Musk said last week that the company was losing money and was in “heavy debt.”
Its obvious resemblance to Twitter has irritated Musk, who has since made several disparaging remarks about Meta’s billionaire owner Mark Zuckerberg and warned to sue.
His regulations have also caused some of the platform’s 360-400 million users to experiment with alternatives such as Bluesky, which is supported by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, and Mastodon.
Massive layoffs and Twitter’s daring decision to rebrand as “X” raise serious concerns about the company’s capacity to pay off its enormous debt load.
Rebranding might denote a new beginning and increased emphasis, but it won’t be the only answer to the company’s underlying financial problems.
Twitter will need to execute comprehensive financial strategies, optimize operations, and look for novel revenue streams if it is to properly manage its debt load.
To be competitive in the rapidly changing IT industry, the corporation must strike a careful balance between cost-cutting measures and investments in growth sectors.
Building trust and confidence among investors and users will also depend on open communication with stakeholders and a clear plan for addressing the debt situation.
Twitter, now X, can navigate this challenge and lead itself towards a sustainable and lucrative future by remaining true to its core beliefs and concentrating on improving user experience.
The social platform’s capacity to adapt, innovate, and draw lessons from the past will be crucial in helping it turn obstacles into opportunities as it continues to develop.
X has the capacity to redefine itself and establish its place as a leader in the social media landscape by utilizing the strength of its brilliant personnel and paying attention to the requirements of its user base.
In the end, only time will tell if Twitter’s comeback will be sparked by this rebrand.
