Global Journal of Management and Business Research, A: Administration and Management, Volume 23 Issue 2

noted increased demand for LMD services over the past two years, as highlighted below: Yes, the number of orders had the spike that never happened. …the number of deliveries 200% more than before Covid. Second, as is clear from the second quote above, this was primarily Covid-19-driven demand, supported by the following quotes: People need to buy stuff and they have no options, so they order online. …because you are not allowed to go out of home during lockdown. …they are going to buy their needs as they can’t go out of home. However, the third sub-theme was that business forecast indicate that this demand would remain high after the pandemic ends, as highlighted below: The LMD business will keep growing. LMD market will continue to rise, and operations will become more efficient. The number of consumers will increase. B2B LMD will not shrink but the percent of B2C market will rise. e) Covid-19-Driven Market Changes The results from the previous theme link to the second theme identified which was the Covid-19 - Driven Market Changes as the LMD market has grown and changed over the last two years. Two main areas of change were identified. First, the buying process itself was evolving as digitization and e-commerce accelerated and Covid sped up the online process for buying. Second, payments specifically had also been evolving since the pandemic, as highlighted below: I believe before Covid cash-on-delivery was the most usable but now we noticed online payments are increasing and Covid played a big role on it as we didn’t allow any deliveries with cash. … now there is increased to use online payments methods. We prefer credit payment before making delivery. This indicates that there are indeed changes taking place in the industry, and likely more widely as it relates to payments, with the cash-as-payment culture in Saudi Arabia identified by Yadav and Mutreja (2022) being challenged by the need to embrace other forms of payment that can facilitate e-commerce in particular. f) External and Internal Responses to Market Changes These changes in the market have seen responses from the businesses themselves (internal) and from the government (external). First, external responses to the Covid-19 induced market changes were particularly related to implementation challenges faced by the companies as a result of both government changes and insufficient capacity respectively, as highlighted below: Restrictions from the authorities to grant permissions for drivers. As demand increased, there wasn't enough capacity to meet that demand. Second, the companies themselves had a range of internal responses to the surge in demand caused by the pandemic, and the first sub-theme identified here related to technological responses being suggested, as highlighted below: …the company is against the change and would prefer not to invest in expensive technologies but I believe it plays a big role specially now. Technology can equip us with so many tools that allow us to improve our operations. …technological factors helping LMD to grow through using AI, automations which help the company to operate better. This is congruent with the discussion in the literature, with Alharbi et al. (2022) emphasising the importance of new technologies for the LMD market to grow. The companies also were looking to make other responses to ensure they are able to meet the new demand, as highlighted below: [We are] also setting up 3 urban warehouses. Fleet management system and warehouse management system. You will be very easily supporting your customers and delivering on time and having no complaints. … investing in warehouse and transportation. We are adding resources to tackle the demand. This supports the point made in the literature that this industry is still heavily dependent on the traditional transport infrastructure and methods (Alharbi et al., 2022). Finally, the aim of these changes was to support the companies in adjusting to new delivery requirements, as highlighted below: Express delivery, investing in warehouse[s] and transportation. We have warehouses in each province and big city as a plan for same-day delivery. Logistics infrastructure must be improved to have the express delivery. The investment in warehouses developments and transportations systems which will allow us to provide express delivery in the future. Express delivery requires huge chain in transportation to deliver the shipments. This thus supports the trend identified in the secondary data sources that forecasted that an An Assessment of the Last Mile Delivery Market in Saudi Arabia during and Post COVID-19 © 2023 Global Journals 80 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXIII Issue II Version I Year 2023 ( ) A