Priority-based routing: A shortest path algorithm for e-commerce deliveries

Abstract

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the popularity of online shopping through social media and e-commerce sites has increased in Bangladesh. Due to different delivery policies of the courier service companies and other unavoidable reasons, products often do not reach the customer on time. This paper proposes an optimized shortest-path algorithm for e-commerce companies to efficiently and quickly deliver products to multiple destinations by considering their priorities. The use of graph theory and the Google Map API provides flexibility and real-time optimization of the shortest-path calculation. The proposed approach introduces two types of demand destinations: normal and priority demanded destinations. The superiority of the proposed algorithm over the conventional delivery system is a 12%–15% increase in the delivery time and a 15%–20% decrease in overall costs. Our proposed algorithm will benefit companies dealing with product delivery systems such as courier product delivery, e-commerce product delivery, and online food delivery.