Will Contactless Delivery Persist Even After COVID-19?

By: Vlad Pasculescu

time to read article 5 minutes

article date Nov 02, 2020

Remember the pizza delivery guy handing you your pies while you fumbled around in your pocket for a proper tip to hand him? That was then, this is now. Delivery has gone contactless, exposing a hygienic new way of doing business during a pandemic. But what happens when the pandemic goes away? We asked professionals in the industry to share their thoughts on the future of contactless delivery in a post-COVID world.

James Pearson

James Pearson, CEO and Small Business Evangelist at eVenturing Enterprises.

Will stay

Contactless delivery became a prerequisite and essential safety measure amidst the pandemic. However, the majority of customers saw it beyond a protocol. I believe that contactless delivery will stay because of how it transforms the customer service experience in an innovative way. As customers continue to adapt to the system, it will also affect their behavior in how they opt to transact and secure their purchases hereafter.

Contactless delivery has set an expectation and standards in customer service of how companies should show extended assistance and care towards their customers. It [enhances] people’s buying experience through reinforced speed and convenience. As customers re-evaluate and continue to adjust to meet their needs, there is a high probability of a shift in behavior and higher expectations from the customers.

Carlos Castelán

Carlos Castelán, Managing Director of The Navio Group.

In demand

Contactless delivery was important pre-pandemic and will continue to grow in demand given that consumers have had enough time to adopt new shopping behaviors and safety protocols during the pandemic. Furthermore, the convenience of options such as curbside pickup or delivery to the front door will resonate even after restrictions have lifted, given the high degree of convenience for shoppers.

Vipin Chahal

Vipin Chahal, Founder of Return Policy Guide. Vipin is a budding entrepreneur and has been in the corporate sector for the last 7-8 years.

Wish will persist

I have been in the corporate sector for the last seven to eight years, and I can safely say that I haven’t seen anything similar to this pandemic ever, neither in my professional career nor in my personal life. Each and every business has been affected.

Talking about contactless delivery, I think, and I really wish, that it will persist even after Covid-19. The most important reason is that almost 90% of viruses spread because of human contact, and that is the major reason for transmission. Be it common flu or Covid-19, contact between humans or contact between infected surfaces are the reason why the viruses have shown a tremendous transmission capability.

There is one more benefit of contactless delivery. Contactless delivery encourages you to pay through digital payment modes, which are a boon as local businesses and small retail stores are also going digital. The misuse of money, or conversion of black money into white, also gets reduced when we use digital modes of payment. Though we have been hit by the worst pandemic possibly in the last 200 years, there are some things that it has taught us.

Mike Allen

Mike Allen, Co-Founder at The Fashion Jacket. He has a Master’s in computing with over six years of experience in the eCommerce industry.

People prefer contactless delivery

After the beginning of COVID-19, there has been a rise in contactless deliveries out of necessity. But by the looks of post-COVID China, the trend of this contactless delivery will persist. As people now prefer contactless purchases, moving from paying in cash to paying online, even the transactions have decreased since Covid-19. Similarly, most people are now aware of the hygiene and wonder if the product they are buying has been through unhygienic places. At first, it was mostly because of the virus, but now it’s just awareness that has made people prefer the contactless ways of delivery and purchasing.

Karen Condor

Karen Condor writes and researches for the car insurance comparison site, 4AutoInsuranceQuote.com.

Will grow

Contactless delivery will persist and even grow after Covid-19. The industry was already growing before the coronavirus pandemic. The percentage of independent delivery drivers is increasing in the double digits annually, and more and more insurance companies are offering them customized coverage.

The supply is responding to the increased demand in the marketplace. Consumers want convenience. We’ve become a click-and-receive society.

The Covid-19 pandemic has just solidified it: Segments of the market that didn’t use contactless delivery or used it infrequently, myself included, have seen how relying on it saves the hassle of dealing with traffic, stores, and people. And when it comes to food delivery, it’s cheaper to get delivery from a restaurant than to actually go there and spend more money on pre-dinner drinks and waiter-suggested after-dinner desserts. It’s a great way to save money yet still support local businesses.

And while contactless delivery typically now means people are choosing to have delivery drivers leave items outside the door for them to pick up instead of handing it to them, in the future it will become common for robotic delivery systems, such as Amazon’s Scout, to be utilized more and more in this business.

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