The evolving role of E-commerce in Logistics by Adrián Alarcón and Sheriff Guennoun

E commerce is a relatively new concept and has shaped the way logistics system function in the past few years.
AS E commerce continues to grow most shippers are only beginning to realise what entails for their distribution network infrastructures


commerce logistics evolution

In the more developed countries E commerce has really dominated a lot of markets. This has led to new logistics functions being in demand.


These are a few examples:
  • The creation of a mega e fulfilment centre where merchandise is stocked. These facilities are usually quite big averaging 750000 sq feet and operate 24/7  
  • The creation of parcel sortation centres where the products are organised on their respective postcodes in order to facilitate delivery
  • Parcel delivery centres that take care of the last mile delivery to the customers

These new logistics systems bring a lot of new benefits to the customer’s shopping experience.


Such as:
  • Improved communication
  • Transparency in the supply chain
  • More efficiency
  • On time delivery
  • Better customer satisfaction
  • Cost reduction


One of the consequences of E commerce is having to standardise and synchronise business processes to be able to cope with real time orders by having an organised inventory despite having extensive numbers of sales.

Examples:

  • JD.com or Jingdong Mall in the past 360Buy is a Chinese electronic business organization headquartered in Beijing. It is one of the biggest B2C online retailers in China by exchange volume. Revenue: 18.5 Billion $
  • Amazon: Amazon.com, Inc. is an American electronic business organization with central station in Seattle, Washington. Revenue: 88.99 Billion $

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