Resumo

Brazil is home to 11,403 favelas, which collectively house approximately 18 million people residing in 6.6 million households. One of the vulnerabilities of these settlements is the invisibility of their population in the eyes of the State, primarily due to the lack of access to education, healthcare, and security services. This invisibility also extends to retail companies, as they are unable to reach citizens’ homes to deliver consumable products and services in the B2C (Business to Consumer) modality. This poses significant challenges for urban transportation and distribution logistics.

The objective of this study is to identify the main undesirable effects and their respective causes within the current urban logistics scenario of favelas while investigating how Brazilian e-commerce has overcome delivery restrictions in high-risk areas. This will be achieved by analyzing the perceptions of residents and experts and identifying the distribution methods and modalities used by major marketplaces in the country. This research aims to expand the understanding of this phenomenon beyond the B2C consumer relationship within e-commerce.

The research employed the principles of the Theory of Constraints to comprehend the issue of undelivered parcels at addresses situated in favelas. Goldratt and Cox (2002) state that managing constraints within an organizational system leads to systemic gain rather than isolated improvements. A constraint is defined as any factor that hinders the system from achieving a higher level of performance in relation to its goal. This approach involves addressing three questions: what needs to be changed? what is the desired outcome of the change? how can the change be effectively implemented?

This research is descriptive, as its objective is to present characteristics of the phenomenon of lack of last-mile parcel delivery in favelas.The collection of primary and secondary data took place between May and June 2023. Interviews were conducted with seven specialists in last-mile delivery working with e-commerce customers. As for secondary data, reports from 21 customers who had not been served by marketplace companies’ distribution services. a content analysis of the collected data was performed following the principles outlined by Bardin (2016) and it was performed by R software.

The convergence of primary and secondary data revealed several key causes that contribute to the bottleneck in last-mile distribution within restricted delivery favelas. The primary issues identified include movement restrictions based on modality/method, limitations in scheduling, cargo theft incidents, and inadequate addressing. These findings align with the research conducted by Vieira, Carvalho, and Yoshizaki (2016) and reinforce the significance of these factors in impacting distribution. The Current Reality Tree highlights the main causes of the undesirable effects observed in process.

This article has provided a comprehensive analysis of the undesirable effects and underlying causes of the critical issue of non-delivery of e-commerce products in favelas and similar communities. It has also proposed a set of solutions aimed at bridging the gap between customer expectations and the reality of distribution platforms. The findings of this study highlight the challenges faced in these areas, including delivery refusal due to safety concerns and higher delivery costs compared to other regions, but there are a set of potential solutions that marketplaces can offer to consumers.

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