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

An Assessment of the Last Mile Delivery Market in Saudi Arabia during and Post COVID-19 71 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXIII Issue II Version I Year 2023 ( ) A © 2023 Global Journals efficient strategy concerning this logistics critical step for quick customer response and on time delivery (Alharbi et al., 2022). b) LMD Market Trends during Covid -19 The LMD market in Saudi Arabia was valued at $285.28 Million in 2020 and is projected to reach $520.88 Million by 2030 showing a CAGR of 6.34% from 2021 to 2030 (Yadav and Mutreja, 2022). The rise of the e-commerce business, as well as an increase in trading activities as a result of globalization, are driving the growth of the KSA’s LMD. Figure 2 shows the forecasted e-commerce market size from $11 billion in 2020 to $21 billion in 2025. Figure 2: Forecasted E-Commerce Market Size Post-Covid-19, Saudi Arabia, US$ billion (Source: Statista, 2020) To fight Covid-19, the governments all around the world had implanted partial and complete nation- wide lockdowns which has forced the general public to stay indoors and revolutionized their purchasing behaviour that resulted rise in consumer e-commerce last mile deliveries in 2020 alone by 25% (Weforum, 2021). The lockdown in KSA resulted in increase in online purchase behaviour among the consumers with 80% of the survey participants confirming an increase in their online purchases (Statista, 2020) . Covid-19 has certainly changed the purchasing behaviour on consumers all around the globe including KSA. With rise in e-commerce and with increasing numbers of online shoppers in KSA, from 10.5 million in 2016 to 19.3 million in 2022 as illustrated in Figure 3, growth in LMD market cannot be argued (Statista, 2020). 11 13 14 16 19 21 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025