The trend of Digital Marketplaces incorporates digital brokerage platforms that match demand for products and services with available supply. These platforms give suppliers and customers access to a greater market while also offering them comprehensive transparency and additional services.
Customers value the ease of comparing shipping options and pricing in a digital logistics marketplace. Due to growing demand for online logistics marketplaces, logistics providers have expanded their offerings in recent years and new, specialized marketplaces have emerged. For example, companies can now access available logistics labor during peak seasons. Many of these digital platforms are becoming more versatile thanks to increased usage and deeper data analysis, increasing transparency and creating a better customer experience.
Digital marketplaces are having a significant impact on the logistics industry, especially because of increasingly complex supply chain networks and countless options of logistics services and providers. These marketplaces take transparency to a new level. However, there is a shortage of scalable solutions in some areas, like in the matching of available workforces and logistics providers. This means it will take another 3 to 4 years before logistics marketplaces achieve market maturity at scale.