Last week, I had a delivery from DPD. At one level, it was very mundane (I received and signed for a parcel). At another, it was very positive: I could choose my deliver time to within an hour; I could even elect for a "green" slot when they were going to be in the area anyway (which obviously reduces their cost as well as simplifying my choice). Then on the day I could track the movement of my parcel online and anticipate pretty accurately when it would arrive. The user interface was good, and it was the "front end" of a good system that worked well. This made the overall experience of choosing, ordering and receiving the product much more pleasurable than it might otherwise have been.
In contrast, Samuel Gibbs reports on his experience of using novel Internet of Things tools to do something comparable for frequently bought products. Quite apart from the prospect of having dozens of IoT devices stuck up around the home, he highlights the challenges of receiving the goods once ordered, and of receiving goods in impractically large quantities. These new technologies aren't just about an easy-to-use button-press (like my "easy" button), but about the total customer experience of choosing, ordering and receiving... and someone needs to think that through properly too.
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