PurposeThis paper investigates the economic performances of two business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce last-mile delivery options –parcel lockers (PLs) and traditional home delivery (HD) in contexts where e-commerce is still at its early stages. It analyses and compares two different implementation contexts, urban and rural areas.Design/methodology/approachThis study develops an analytical model that estimates delivery costs for both the PL and HD options. The model is applied to two base cases (representative of urban and rural areas in Italy), and sensitivity analyses are subsequently performed on a set of key variables/parameters (i.e. PL density, PL fill rate and PL annual costs). To support the model development and application, interviews with practitioners (Edwards et al., 2011) were performed.FindingsPLs imply lower delivery cost than HD, independently from the implementation area (urban or rural): advantages mainly derive from the higher delivery density and the drastic reduction of failed deliveries. Benefits entailed by PLs are more significant in rural areas due to lower PL investments and annual costs, as well as higher HD costs.Originality/valueThis paper offers insights to both academics and practitioners. On the academic side, it develops a model to compare the delivery cost of PL and HD, which includes the analysis of urban and rural contexts. This could serve as a platform for developing/informing future analytical/optimisation contributions. On the managerial side, it may support practitioners in making decisions about the implementation of PLs and HD, to benchmark their costs and to identify the main variables and parameters at play.

中文翻译：

---

包裹储物柜与送货上门：城市和农村地区最后一英里送货成本的比较模型

目的本文调查了两种企业对消费者 (B2C) 电子商务最后一英里交付选项——包裹储物柜 (PLs) 和传统送货上门 (HD) 在电子商务仍处于早期阶段的情况下的经济表现。它分析和比较了两种不同的实施环境，城市和农村地区。设计/方法/方法本研究开发了一个分析模型，用于估算 PL 和 HD 选项的交付成本。该模型应用于两个基本案例（代表意大利的城市和农村地区），随后对一组关键变量/参数（即 PL 密度、PL 填充率和 PL 年成本）进行敏感性分析。为了支持模型的开发和应用，我们采访了从业者（Edwards et al., 2011）。发现PLs 意味着比HD 更低的交付成本，独立于实施地区（城市或农村）：优势主要来自更高的交付密度和大幅减少失败的交付。由于 PL 投资和年度成本较低，以及 HD 成本较高，PLs 带来的好处在农村地区更为显着。原创性/价值本文为学术界和从业者提供了见解。在学术方面，它开发了一个模型来比较 PL 和 HD 的交付成本，其中包括对城市和农村环境的分析。这可以作为开发/通知未来分析/优化贡献的平台。在管理方面，它可以支持从业者就 PL 和 HD 的实施做出决策，对他们的成本进行基准测试，并确定主要的变量和参数。