#StartupsVsCovid19: Will The Future Of B2B & B2C Logistics Be Driven By Drones?

With a crunch in the workforce in hyperlocal, ecommerce and logistics sectors, the industry stakeholders and government across the world are looking at innovative ways to deploy drones to deliver essentials to its customers and businesses. The question remains whether India is ready for this change. 

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, many countries including Spain, South Korea and China among others have successfully implemented drone delivery services to knit the gap in the last mile and first-mile delivery services of the supply chain.  

In the recent episode of Inc42’s #StartupsVsCovid19 ‘Ask Me Anything’ (AMA) series, cofounder and CEO of LogiNext, Dhruvil Sanghvi, said that the logistics industry in India is looking at automation technology for logistics fulfilment, both in B2B and B2C space. 

However, drones are expensive and there are regulatory hurdles, range restrictions, reliability and safety among other factors, and there is so much work to be done, he added. In other words, it will probably take five to ten years to deploy drone solutions in the B2C landscape, when compared to B2B applications, where drones can play a pivotal role.

Currently, multiple hyperlocal delivery startups such as Dunzo and ShopX among others have partnered with drone companies to provide long-range drone delivery solutions, where they are running a pilot test to check drone deliveries in the country. 

In January 2020, ShopX cofounder and CEO Amit Sharma had said that the company will be deploying drone delivery services in the next 18 months. At the time, he had also said that the B2C applications of drones will take some time, whereas B2B deliveries are feasible. 

Business Values In The Post Covid-19 World

In another episode of #StartupsVsCovid19 AMA series, Ashish Tulsian, the cofounder and CEO of POSist had said that this is the time to observe the situation and act accordingly, where businesses need to create value for their clients instead of pivoting to newer avenues.

New Delhi-based POSist is a restaurant management platform which offers a gamut of services in the restaurant space, right from the back office, to kitchen controls, inventory control, account management and cloud kitchen control among others. Currently, the company has a suite of 14 products.

“When the market opens up, it is going to be a day of reckoning for all of us,” avered Tulsian. He said that if businesses are offering great service and good quality products, the companies will thrive much faster. 

Further, he said to look for value, as people in the post-Covid world are going to look for much more value. Therefore it becomes crucial for companies to have products and services which are going to work immediately.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.