Inbound Logistics | January 2023

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homes and remove old mattresses. Saatva’s competitors are “bed-in-a-box” mattresses compressed in a shipping box and delivered to the customer’s door by ground delivery such as UPS or FedEx. “Saatva provides delivery, in-home set-up, and old mattress removal—a suite of services that is

as mattress and furniture retailers that serve a metropolitan area. “If you sell exclusively online, the need to partner with the right carriers is more important than ever,” says Brian Bourke, global chief commercial ofcer at solutions provider SEKO Logistics. The line between categories in the last-mile segment is blurring to some extent, so there are more choices than just parcel or LTL delivery. UPS, FedEx, and a growing roster of regional carriers deliver many parcel-sized shipments.

Not so many years ago, it wasn’t common to buy bulky items like furniture or exercise equipment anywhere other than a local store with its own delivery trucks. Like the hometown retailer with its name on the side of the box truck, last-mile delivery is intertwined with the consumer experience and the company’s brand. RELYING ON PARTNERS Today, digitally native retailers like Peloton and Saatva rely on distribution centers and delivery partners to eliminate the expense of brick-and-mortar locations. E-commerce shippers have found that managing distribution and fulllment in-house can be tough. In early 2022, Peloton, beset by falling demand post-pandemic, outsourced fulllment to third-party logistics (3PL) providers, including RXO (formerly XPO) and J.B. Hunt, to reduce xed costs. Peloton closed16 warehouses across North America and shifted to 3PLs to set up bikes and treadmills at customer homes and handle service and repair calls. The move would reduce delivery costs by up to 50% per product and improve on-time deliveries, CEO Barry McCarthy said in the announcement. For direct-to-consumer e-commerce sales, regardless of the shipper’s size, owning a truck eet with employee drivers is costly. The equation is different for retailers with physical locations, such

difcult to replicate,” says Richard Dimilta, senior vice president of business operations at Saatva.

There’s an increasing number of oversize or non-conveyable

parcels that are larger than standard parcels but don’t require LTL service due to weight or

dimensions. The demand for LTL for larger products such as exercise gear or outdoor furniture is growing with consumer acceptance of online shopping for these types of products. SELLING WITH SERVICE Some e-commerce brands have made white-glove delivery a component of their premium branding. One example is Saatva, a maker of premium mattresses, which counts on white-glove services to deliver and set up full- sized mattresses and a growing home furnishing collection in customers’

Shifting final-mile delivery to 3PLs cut stationary bike retailer Peloton's per-product delivery costs by up to 50%.

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