A literature review of the main factors influencing the e-commerce and last-mile delivery projects during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Humanity has faced many pandemics throughout its history with COVID-19 pandemic being the most recent. Each pandemic requires the implementation of a series of restrictions and measures to reform local societies or even society on a global scale. Scientific and technological innovations have ensured the survival of mankind and consequently the establishment of new habits and trends. One of these reforms concerns the transport of goods and in particular urban logistics and last-mile delivery. Despite the increasing use of e-commerce, the average amount of money spent per month and per buyer has decreased; in times of uncertainty, people prefer to postpone big purchases and focus more on everyday products. These purchases have generated an increase in demand for the transport of goods and put significant pressure on the supply chain. For this reason, actions have been developed to improve logistics, in particular last-mile delivery, with the introduction of environmentally friendly and small vehicles, among others. In order to be able to trace the evolution of the combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and logistics spatially and temporally, the manuscript focused as a first step on the analysis of the literature entered in the main databases dedicated to scientific publications, returning some 2,227 indexed articles from 2000 to 2021.The search was conducted using keywords and iterations between them. The results emphasised the need to adapt business activities to the changing situation by anticipating people's needs, creating e-commerce sites capable of accompanying customers in this delicate phase. The results obtained were analysed from a statistical point of view, laying the foundations for future investigative steps in the field of last-mile logistics and the proper planning of loading and unloading spaces for goods in urban areas.