"E-Commerce Companies Experiment with Deferred Delivery of Goods Due to Labor Shortage"

"E-Commerce Companies Experiment with Deferred Delivery of Goods Due to Labor Shortage"

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Welcome to "Learn Japanese from the News."
 
「みなさん、明（あ）けましておめでとうございます。」
 
Happy New Year!
 
Join us as we learn Japanese and about the country through Japanese news stories. Today's headline is…
 
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品物（しなもの）を届（とど）ける人（ひと）が足（た）りない　買（か）い物（もの）した人（ひと）に遅（おそ）く届（とど）ける実験（じっけん）
 
"E-Commerce Companies Experiment with Deferred Delivery of Goods Due to Labor Shortage"
This news story was published on NEWS WEB EASY's website on November 10th.
Now let's go over some vocab words that will help us understand what's going on.
 
品物（しなもの）
goods or items
 
届（とど）ける
deliver
 
ポイント
in the context of today's story, loyalty points
 
Let's keep these words in mind as we listen.
 
「インターネットで品物（しなもの）を売（う）る会社（かいしゃ）は、買（か）い物（もの）した人（ひと）にできるだけ早（はや）く品物（しなもの）を届（とど）けようとしています。しかし、品物（しなもの）を運（はこ）ぶ仕事（しごと）をする人（ひと）が足（た）りないため、品物（しなもの）を遅（おそ）く届（とど）ける実験（じっけん）をしています。
生活（せいかつ）に必要（ひつよう）な物（もの）を売（う）るウェブサイトの「LOHACO」では、買（か）い物（もの）した人（ひと）が、品物（しなもの）が着（つ）く日（ひ）を、買（か）った日（ひ）の3日（みっか）あとから7日（なのか）あとまで選（えら）ぶことができます。品物（しなもの）が着（つ）く日（ひ）を遅（おそ）くした人（ひと）には、ポイントをあげます。
このやり方（かた）で、同（おな）じときに届（とど）ける品物（しなもの）が集（あつ）まらないようにします。8月（がつ）から決（き）まった日（ひ）にこの実験（じっけん）を行（おこな）っていて、買（か）い物（もの）した人（ひと）の半分（はんぶん）ぐらいが、品物（しなもの）が着（つ）く日（ひ）を遅（おそ）くしています。」
 
E-commerce operators are struggling with a labor shortage that is slowing down the delivery of goods. This story is about a shopping site that is experimenting with offering shoppers benefits for choosing later delivery dates.
They hope this can help improve efficiency.
 
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Now we'll break down a few sentences from the story that contain helpful expressions and keywords.
Let's start with the following sentence.
 
品物（しなもの）が着（つ）く日（ひ）を遅（おそ）くした人（ひと）には、ポイントをあげます。
 
 "Those who set a later delivery date are given loyalty points."
 
The katakana word ポイント comes from the English word "point." Traditionally it was used to refer to the marks or numbers used to keep score in a game or sport, or to describe the "point" of a story or argument.
These days it's often used to refer to "loyalty points" that supermarkets and other retailers offer customers in exchange for shopping with them.
The more you shop at a certain store, the more ポイント you receive, which you can later redeem for discounts or free products.
 
Other common expressions along those lines include, ポイントを貯（た）める, which means "save or accumulate points," ポイントで買（か）い物（もの）をする, "use your points to shop," and ポイントで払（はら）う, "pay with points."
These are just some other verbs that are commonly used with ポイント.
 
All right, let's move on to our next sentence.
 
このやり方（かた）で、同（おな）じときに届（とど）ける品物（しなもの）が集（あつ）まらないようにします。
 
"With this approach, the service aims to prevent the concentration of deliveries that need to be made at the same time."
 
やり方（かた）refers to the "way of doing" something.　So for instance, 正（ただ）しいやり方（かた） means "the correct way" or "the right approach." Conversely, 間違（まちが）ったやり方（かた）means "the incorrect way" or "the wrong approach." At the root of やり方（かた）is the verb やる, which means "to do." Another verb that has almost the same meaning but subtly different connotations is する.
 
やる is considered slightly more informal than する.
 
And while やる is used for intentional actions, する can be used to refer to actions that are done unconsciously or involuntarily. Breathing is a good example of the latter. We say 息（いき）をする, and not 息（いき）をやる.
 
And that's it for today.
 
I think offering shoppers points for choosing a later delivery date can be a win-win for everyone involved. I'm curious to see what other solutions businesses can come up with.
 
Tune in next time for more!
 
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