The 2023 Leaders in Logistics Last Mile Conference brought together the UK and Europe’s leading carrier and postal operator professionals. The event was a significant gathering for the community of last mile experts who share the mission to deliver faster, cheaper and more sustainably.
The conference took place at Twickenham Stadium in London and served as a one-stop shop for networking and building those all-important relationships within the last mile e-commerce world.
The Parcelly team were delighted to attend again this year as a Silver Sponsor. Our very own CEO and Founder Sebastian Steinhauser contributed to a panel discussion on ‘Bringing fulfilment to the last mile: defining a plan of action’. It was also incredible to exhibit alongside some of our partners such as Gophr, Stewart, DHL and Uber Direct, as well as other delivery icons such as Geopost, Royal Mail, Alibaba and Yodel.
The Last Mile agenda included keynote speeches, panel discussions, fireside chats and case studies. These sessions focused in on hot topics such as new e-commerce markets, customer delivery experience, new delivery technology and delivering for sustainability and efficiency.
The day started with Session 1 ‘The Future of Last Mile Delivery’, where we saw a number of keynote addresses from Yves Delmas at Geopost and Dennis Li at Alibaba. The following sessions were divided between the Teal and Silver stages, where we attended many insightful discussions.
Session 2 kicked off with a fireside chat by Seb Robert, CEO at Gophr and Caroline Varga Head of Uber Direct UK. The chat focused on meeting the demand for immediacy: unlocking same-day delivery and covered the technology and safety measures necessary to meet the consumer expectations.
This was followed by a panel discussion by Gary Page, Partner & General Manager at John Lewis Partnership, Tim Davies, Head of Pick Up at DPD UK and Marcus Hurd, Director of Retail Logistics, Stuart. The discussion was on delivering a superb consumer returns experience, economically addressing the importance of a good returns experience, label-less returns and sustainable packaging.
During Session 3, we saw our very own CEO and Founder Sebastian Steinhauser take part in a panel discussion alongside Isabel Fuell, Senior Operations Manager at HIVED and Richard Lindeen, Head of Operations and Vice VD at Wolt. The session addressed ‘Bringing fulfilment to the last mile: defining a plan of action’ and addressed consumer demands, retail strategy and inventory management. The session began by exploring differing consumer demands surrounding Click & Collect and same day delivery, observing costs and efficiency.
“If volatility is an issue, it obviously helps to be as agnostic as possible. The reality is, agnostic parcel capacity storage is the main driver of efficiency” Sebastian Steinhauser, CEO and Founder of Parcelly
Next, the panel addressed micro-fulfilment as a strategy for all retail businesses. The session focused specifically on micro-fulfilment capacity planning and inventory management, with Sebastian highlighting the ways technology can help.
“Leveraging mobile technology in-store rather than having bulky terminals is one of many ways of making deliveries much more efficient, an example from our Parcelly micro-hubs" Sebastian Steinhauser, CEO and Founder of Parcelly
Favourite quotes of the day (excluding Parcelly!)
“44% of European e-shoppers are delivered out of home” Yves Delmas, CEO Geopost
“Re-commerce marketplaces are growing 20x faster than the overall retail market” Mike Hancox, CEO of Yodel
“Consumers expect more transparency and communication when tracking items. We need to provide that context [...] to meet consumer expectations” Seb Robert CEO at Gophr
We had a fantastic time at this year's Leaders in Logistics Last Mile Event. Thank you for the invitation Marketforce Live and we look forward to your next event to share our thought leadership and tech innovations.
If you missed us there and would like to arrange a meeting, please contact
