Efficiency of Supply Chain and Logistics in E-Commerce

Table of ContentsChapter 1....................................................................................................................................3

1.1Introduction.......................................................................................................................3

1.2 Background......................................................................................................................3

1.3 Research Rationale...........................................................................................................4

1.4 Research Objective...........................................................................................................5

1.5 Research Questions..........................................................................................................5

1.6 Outline of Chapters..........................................................................................................6

Chapter Two :Literature Review................................................................................................7

2. Introduction........................................................................................................................7

2.1 Logistics and SCM...........................................................................................................7

2.2 Logistics and E-Commerce..............................................................................................8

2.3 Flow Structures in E-Commerce......................................................................................9

2.3.1 Information Model for E-Commerce........................................................................9

2.4 Supply Chain Flows.......................................................................................................11

2.4.1 Distribution Development in E-commerce.............................................................11

2.4.2 Distribution structure for Ecommerce.....................................................................11

2.5 Supply Chain in E-commerce in US and Across the Globe...........................................12

2.4.1 Global E-commerce Industry..................................................................................14

2.6 Supply Chain in E-commerce in Middle East................................................................15

2.7 Future of Supply Chain and Logistics for E-commerce.................................................16

Bibliography.............................................................................................................................18

Appendix A..............................................................................................................................22

Chapter 1

1.1Introduction

The nexus of computers, people, along with networks with the business goals in order to sell

goods, information as well as services is considered to be the next business revolution which

will help in cutting costs, growing the profitability along with markets and at the same time

improve the shareholder retrain in innovative manner as compared to traditional methods of

doing business (Palmisano, 1998). This rapidly increasing phenomenon of business is

referred to as e-commerce which means trading the goods as well as services electronically

over the internet (Dolber et al., 1998).

Supply chain on the other hand can be defined as when three or more than three organizations

get connected with each other through one or more ways for flow of services, information,

products as well as finances from the sources to the final customer (Mentzer et al., 2001).

Therefore finding out the efficient supply chain management system is essential for e-

commerce organization in order to work in closer manner towards achievement of goals , to

foster long-term relationships so as to increase their competitive advantage of the supply

chain on the whole ( Mentzer et al., 2001; Day ,2000).

E-commerce being the new phenomenon which will create huge impact and at the same

time significantly change the way in which organizations as well as individuals shop,

distribute their products and also do business management (Hultkrantz and Lumsden, 2010)

1.2 Background

As a Manager in the Supply Chain Division of ABC Company which deals with e-Commerce

in UAE which has a team consisting of 18 members in the Supply Chain Department and in

total the organization have 55 employees. While analysing the strengths, problems, effects,

resulting outcomes and the recent developments in Supply Chain and Logistics which

influence e-Commerce. Therefore the topic chosen for research is to study in depth the supply

chain and logistics divisions for an e-Commerce business in UAE for serving the local

markets along with developing an expansion plan to serve various other markets of Egypt,

Kuwait, Qatar and KSA.

This e-Commerce company has suppliers from various companies but the company has

mainly two operations which it needs to handle which are import and export operations

related to the business in efficient manner along with the domestic or local distribution of

goods within the country, UAE. Therefore through this paper the researcher will explore and

analyse the most efficient way or method for operating the Supply chain and Logistics

division in the field of e-Commerce which will also promote (Christopher, 1992). Therefore

the main rationale of this research paper is to track the changes which have occurred in the

supply chain division which service the e-Commerce companies and find out the most

efficient and effectual supply chain and logistics method in e-commerce.

1.3 Research RationaleWith the rising interest of consumers in buying through internet in the recent years, the e-

Commerce companies have seen remarkable rise in the number of internet buyers for various

products. The reason for this remarkable increase in internet consumers can be attributed to

the wider and appealing feature of World Wide Web which has resulted in greatest growth

worldwide (Bergendahl and Magnusson, 1998). The best solution for rising demand is online

shopping which delivers products at the doorstep of consumer without any hassle of going to

the showrooms. At the back of these transactions operates supply chain and logistics division

of e-commerce Company.

Earlier there were many defects in e-commerce transactions which lead to reduced online

customers. Some of the reasons which caused this decline in e-commerce business were lack

of proper information, problems in marketing the attractive aspect of products, lack of

customer awareness and attention and many more. But with changing time the concept has

gained popularity and now e-Commerce now offers unlimited choices of products and most

importantly the scale as well as coverage of logistics companies like FedEx and DHL have

also caused reduced cost of delivery. Companies incur huge transportation costs, stock-out

costs and stocking costs which lead to reduced customer satisfaction. Therefore through this

research we will try to find out effective supply chain and logistics so that goods are being

delivered directly from factories to the consumers which will lead to improved customer

satisfaction, reduces stock-out costs and declining transportation costs.

1.4 Research ObjectiveThe main objective of this research is to clearly outline in detail all the processes, current

changes, supply chain improvements along with the barriers faced by supply chain during the

course. Finally to find out how efficient supply chain and logistics systems can help an e-

commerce company to grow and expand in domestic as well as international markets. Few

main objectives of this study have been highlighted below:

To analyse the supply chain, transportation as well as logistics of e-Commerce

industry or organizations.

To study the physical distribution along with the supply chain as well as the

supporting flow of information in the organization.

To find out the various supply chains and logistics methodologies operational in e-

Commerce organizations across the globe.

To study the logistics consequences of e-commerce which implies analysing as well

as studying the logistics demands to achieve profitable e-commerce in terms of

delivery service as well as logistics cost.

To lay focus on logistics platform through physical distribution structure in the

supply chain considering various actors like retailers, forwarders, producers,

wholesalers, customers , truckers tec.

1.5 Research QuestionsThe research questions for this study have been developed as well as analysed further

through analysis of various cases related to e-commerce industry ( Hultkrantz and

Lumsden, 2000; Erlandsson and Linden, 1999 ; Freij and Rosengren , 1999). The

following research questions have been developed for which the answer would be seeked

through this research:

1. What distribution modes, volumes as well as resources are needed for creating and

efficient logistics and supply chain operations for e-Commerce organization?

2. What steps can be taken regarding logistics and supply chain by e-commerce

organization to reduce various costs like transportation costs, stock-out costs etc.?

3. What are the main barriers or defects in transportation and supply chain of e-

commerce companies which leads to reduced business and higher costs?

4. What are the main factors which impact the supply chain and logistics of e-commerce

companies?

5. What factors should be considered for supply chain and logistics to guarantee success

for online retailers?

6. What changes should be made to the supply chain and logistics of e-commerce

organization to expand across boundaries to other nations in successful manner?

1.6 Outline of ChaptersIn this chapter the connection between E-commerce and supply chain and logistics has been

established and then the background for the research has been explained. Then the main aim

and rationale for conducting the research on this topic “Efficiency of Supply chain and

Logistics in E-Commerce” has been explained. The focus is laid on the research objectives

and based on these research objectives research questions have been framed for which the

answers would be searched through this research.

Chapter Two :Literature Review

2. IntroductionSupply chain management has been enhanced and through application of Information

Technology (IT) it has gained much importance in recent times because it helps in reducing

cost as well as enhances the responsiveness within the supply chain (McLaren, 2004; Chopra

and Meindl, 2003; Dagenais, 2002; Ndubisi and Jantan, 2003). Using IT has been considered

as a precondition for controlling the highly complex supply chains present in E-commerce

sector in an effective manner (Illyas Tan and Saadah bt Ibrahim, 2010). This is well justified

with the current trend of globalization because most of the businesses span across the borders

and they need to be managed centrally (Zailani, 2008). This clearly indicates that an effectual

adoption of SCM technology will permit rich amount of information exchange, easy access to

the business partners as well as quick and reliable data availability also (Mukhopadhyay and

Kekre, 1995).

E-commerce is considered to be a highly competitive weapon which assists in providing

excellence to the business processes and focussing on industry specific markets also (Piplani,

Pokharel and Tan, 2004).

2.1 Logistics and SCM

Logistics is defined as the process or way of planning, implementation as well as controlling

the highly effective as well as efficient flow along with storage of services, goods along with

related information from the originating point to the point of consumption in order to

conform to the requirements of customers (Logisticsworld.com, 2006). Logistics also covers

inbound, internal, outbound, external movement as well as returning of material along with

goods along with the order fulfilment (Turban, 2008). The figure 1 shown below depicts the

physical as well as information flow starting from raw materials towards the final distribution

of finished goods (Rushton, Oxley and Croucher, 2001)

Figure 2 shown below depicts a simple supply chain which can be divided into three parts:

upstream, internal and downstream (Turban, 2006). The activities conducted by the

manufacturing companies along with their suppliers and their relationship with the suppliers

contribute towards the upstream supply chain and the major activity of upstream part of

supply chain is procurement.

All the in-house processes which are involved in converting the inputs which are collected

from the suppliers into effective outputs or results for organization are defined as internal

supply chain. Some of the major concerns of internal supply chain are found to be

manufacturing, inventory control and production management. While the downstream supply

chain covers all the activities which are related to sending or delivering the final product to

the final end customer. In this part of supply chain more focus is laid on distribution,

warehousing, transportation as well as after-sales service.

2.2 Logistics and E-CommerceThe technology-mediated enhances which occur between parties that is organizations,

individuals or both along with the inter- or intra- electronically based organizational activities

which help in doing such exchanges are termed as E-commerce (Rayport and Jaworski,

2001). E-commerce can also be explained as the process of buying, selling , transferring or

exchanging products, services or information through the use of computer networks in

which internet is being used (Turban, 2008).

Using web-based technologies for acquiring material, conducting transportation processes as

well as warehousing is called E-Logistics and it facilitates distribution to couple which helps

in routing optimization with tracking information about inventory (Fang and Zhang, 2005).

E-Supply Chain Management (E-SCM) is considered to be use of technology in

collaborative manner to uplift and add to Business-to-Business (B2B) processes (Norris,

2000). E-SCM helps in boosting and augmenting the speed, real-time control, level of

customer satisfaction as well as agility of business. It mainly involves using information

technologies for augmenting the supply chain operations through its main activities like

procurement. It also helps in supply chain management which involves planning, controlling

as well as coordination.

E-SCM is not just about making technological changes but it also involves bringing about

changes in management policies performance metrics, organizational structure,

organizational culture as well as business processes all across the supply chain (Turban,

2006). Another E-Commerce technology which very much in use for supporting the activities

occurring in logistics is using Business-to-Business Applications. Therefore more effective as

well as efficient supply chain can be achieved through elimination of either one or more than

one intermediaries from supply chain. Therefore B2B can successfully prove to be an enabler

who helps E-Commerce organizations to gain competitive advantage (Illyas Tan and Saadah

bt Ibrahim, 2010). B2B e-market place is found to be effective in providing various

companies with higher amount of supply chain power along with highly augmented

capabilities which result in online interactions also.

2.3 Flow Structures in E-Commerce The e-commerce volume is expected to increase three times in coming two years as it is seen

that the B2B e-commerce revenues are found to be at present much more than that of

Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and they have been forecasted to be on rise in near future also.

However the market for consumer e-commerce needs a major shift in the purchasing patterns

of consumers along with a huge penetration of the internet so as to become really big

(Cherrington & Capoor, 1999). Some believe that the future is shopping through internet

while others say that it is just a fad and Internet is not capable of offering anything which has

lasting value (Dahlen, 1997). Although Internet has vast pool of opportunities to offer to any

business but in order to become a larger as well as global sales channel there are few criteria

which an organization should fulfil so that the e-commerce can really perform well and they

are: The basic infrastructure of the organization should be in place which should also include

logistics. The businesses as well as the customers should be able to access Internet. The sites

should have multiple language function and at the same time the cost of Internet access

should reduce. Moreover e-commerce should not be dangerous regarding the terms of privacy

and monetary transactions. The speed possessed by technology should be satisfactory and the

organization should set up international standards.

One new definition which has emerged for E-Commerce is that it covers everything starting

from learning or knowing information about the products online as well as electronic

transactions to the online customer service along with customer support (Erlandsson &

Linden, 1999).

2.3.1 Information Model for E-CommerceRising Internet technology has forced the E-commerce companies to redefine their business

models so as to improve the performance of the enterprise (Simchi-Levi and Simchi-Levi,

2001). A model based upon the Porter’s Five Forces will help in analysing the position of the

organization in the market and will also help in analysing the potential of the company

(Porter, 1980). Using e-commerce as the method for reaching out to the end-consumers by

an organization helps in opening range of wide opportunities for the enterprise. This offers

the organization an opportunity to establish its relations beyond the boundaries of traditional

marketing channels. To convert this reality on a large scale the enterprise needs to develop

logistics services in order to fulfil the specific needs.

2.3.1.1 Potential Entrants There has always been threat to well established companies whenever a new marketing

channel like e-commerce is established. The best example which can be quoted for

established brands is Amazon.com which has a stronger trademark along with strength as

well as the volumes to sell directly to the end consumer just like our ABC organization.

Amazon by just selling books became the largest book retailers in US through Internet

selling. Thus Amazon turned out to be a big threat for the traditional brick and mortar

companies because they offered the same products at much lower price also providing high

level of customer service. Therefore Barnes & Nobles also established e-commerce driven

supply chain for selling books.

2.3.1.2 Suppliers/ ProducersWider arrays of possibilities as well as opportunities are being offered by e-commerce to its

different actors in order to establish their products in the desired marketplace. For example

computer manufacturers like Compaq, Hewlett and Packard have to face strong competition

from Dell which started completely e-commerce based supply chain for selling computers to

the consumers directly through Internet. Therefore in near future also there would be

immense scope and opportunities for various organizations to get in to0uch with their

consumers directly through proper channels of communication and bring in cost reduction in

various associated costs by making sale through a vast net of retailers.

2.3.1.3 Substitutes AS a result of late refinements which occur in the value chain of the new companies, they

have become part of the manufacturing processes also and they make simple

configurationally changes so as to correspond the products as per the demands of customers.

One best example is IBM computers which utilises logistics company, Schenker AG, for

configuring as well as installing software on the computers. In this case the logistics company

dealing with ecommerce in it acts as a substitute in place of traditional commerce as it takes

over the traditional retailers’ services (Hultkrantz and Lumsden, 2010) .

2.4 Supply Chain FlowsThe network of organizations which are part of both upstream as well as downstream

linkages in various processes as well as activities which are capable of delivering value in the

form of products as well as services to the hands of their consumers is called supply chain

(Christopher, 1992).The figure 3 shown below shows an example of a supply chain in

ecommerce organization. It shows that there are mainly two types of flows and they are: data

flow and the physical flow. All the elements are getting affected by the ecommerce which

depends upon the flow of data in order to enhance the efficiency. Then too physical

transportation is considered to be imperative for most of products which signifies the

usefulness of deriving the demands regarding logistics for ecommerce through analysis of

logistics customers. Therefore maintain the connection between the physical goods and the

information systems is sometimes supposed to be very difficult (Tilanus, 1997).

2.4.1 Distribution Development in E-commerceMost of the time which the goods are supposed to spend at nodes does not add any kind of

value to the organization, therefore more the number of nodes in the distribution channel the

less efficient the channel would be (Lumsden et al., 1998). The point at which the goods are

altered from being delivered to the stock and then being delivered to order is known as

Customer Order Point (COP). In any conventional distribution, the retailer is considered to be

the COP, where in the buyers or the customers are the ones who place orders and then buy

the products. This kind of system is called ‘Push’ system because in this case the company is

capable of effectively predicting the demand and then the goods are being pushed through the

distribution system (Coyle et al., 1996).

2.4.2 Distribution structure for Ecommerce Since COP is moving upstream in the distribution channel or processes there is immense

need to make huge amount of changes in the distribution processes of e-commerce

organizations. Therefore the distribution process can be simplified and should consist of just

direct distribution from the producer to the customer. One alternative which can be used for

simple distribution for e-commerce products is to totally eliminate the retailer and finally

distribute the goods to the customers from the local warehouses. This is known as home

delivery and this situation can be buying tulips through internet.

Another alternative which can be chosen is to simply eliminate the local warehouse from the

distribution channel and instead of that use the postal service for distributing the goods

directly from the national warehouse to the customers directly. This is known as mail-order

shopping and the example is trading of clothing. The third alternative for distributing goods is

to distribute the goods from the national distribution centres and reaching finally the

customers. A very nice example is distribution a product for elderly people which is

inconsistence protection articles by Tamro. Finally the last option or alternative which can be

used as distribution process is to have direct distribution from the manufacturing company to

the final customers, which is what ABC company chosen for research in this paper wants to

do to directly distribute goods or products directly from producers to their customers who

will place orders on ABC’s e-commerce platform (PRWeb, 2012). The best example is

Taioloronline.com which distributes the tailor-made clothes through its supply chain.

Amazon.com is another well-known organization which can be quoted as an example for

selling books through internet. They started off by distributing books directly from the

printing house to the customers , but later changed their logistic strategy to the one where

they would create their own warehouses in order to cater to the demands of customers in US

with shorter delivery time ( Hulten, 1999).

2.5 Supply Chain in E-commerce in US and Across the Globe

“It’s hard to overstate how thoroughly this (Amazon) move will shake up the retail

industry....Amazon is investing billions to make next-day delivery standard, and the same day

delivery an option for lots of customers. If it can pull that off, the company will permanently

alter how we shop. To put it more bluntly: Physical retailers will be hosed” (Amazon.com,

2013)

The above statement was given by Farhad Manjoo, Slate in July, 2012 and followed by this

statement Amazon.com, which is world’s biggest and largest online retailing chain heralded

their strategy to introduce same-day delivery of the orders placed as a service option for its

customer base along with making the next-day delivery as its standard service. In order to

beat the competition Amazon finalised that it will cut its time of shipping. In the year 2005

Amazon.com introduced completely free two-day shipping as well as gave discounts on the

rates for one-day shipping in US if customer did eligible purchases by charging a flat annual

fee through a service called ‘Amazon Prime’ (Amazon.com, 2013).

The analysts were highly sceptical regarding the success of such model because of logistical

hurdles as well as impracticality of the model. But today Amazon stands as the global leader

in e-commerce as a Fortune 500 company in 2013. The amazing supply chain model of

Amazon consists of wide array of products, worldwide network of warehouses as well as

fulfilment centres, international sites and along with that extensive customer service centres.

At present Amazon.com has an extensive customer base of approximately 30 million people

and is well-known retailing site which implements a sales revenue model. It earns profit by

taking out a small percentage of sales prices for each and every item which is sold through its

website.

Amazon’s same-day delivery strategy is considered to be a big game changer in which the

firm can easily earn profits and become global leader through leveraging its very strong

supply chain. But its competitors also started testing the same-day delivery services like Wal-

Mart also has started offering this service to its customers. Thus Amazon gained success by

neither creating a niche market like Apple nor it stood as a competition against one single

company, rather it amazed and disrupted the whole industry. It affected all the parts of supply

chain of the whole retail industry. But e-commerce experts think that its same-day delivery

can act as a turning point in future as it will be centred on its supply chain as well as

fulfilment capabilities along with continuing it’s the famous low price strategies.

Another big competitor in the market is eBay which earned revenue of $11.6 billion previous

year is planning to occupy the topmost position by using its market place model for supply

chain. In its supply chain model EBay does not stock any of the products but it provides an

extensive online platform for its third-party merchants where they can sell their products to

its registered users. According to B Muralikrishnan, the head of eBay India has said that “

Investing in fulfilment centres and holding inventory negatively impact the gross margins,

prevent fast scaling and pose significant challenges to business sustainability” (Iyer, 2012).

He further added that “We would rather partner with couriers and allied service providers

who are domain experts”. In the e-retailing market which is estimated to be worth $12 billion

in 2015 in India all the home-grown retailers are opting either for centralised model of supply

chain or for distributed model of supply chain. For example one of the biggest e-retailer in

India Flipkart is simply adopting and following supply chain strategy of Amazon.com, but

Snapdeal on the other hand follows the model of eBay and thinks that logistics is not

considered to be a part of its core business.

EBay tries to build trust and offers customised inventory of its bundled merchandise which

differentiates it from other online retailers, whereas Amazon adopts the marketplace model

which is easier to scale and it also provides greater control of the firm on the quality of the

products offered. Thus it helps Amazon or Flipkart to earn the trust of its consumers (Iyer,

2012).

2.4.1 Global E-commerce Industry

Since there is seen to be very rapid increase in the number of online shoppers the internet

retail global sales that is business to consumers (B2C) has reached more than $ 1 trillion in

2012. This is an increase by 21.1% from the last year and US occupies the topmost slot with a

figure of $364 billion. The second place was being taken by Japan with approximate sales of

$127 billion and it was followed by UK with sales figure of $124 billion and China’s retail

online sales figures for 2012 were $110 billion. In a report surveyed by Interactive Media in

Retail Group (IMRG), which is a well-known UK online retail organization it is estimated

that the e-commerce sales globally would cross the mark of $1 trillion by the year end

2013.

The recent trend which has emerged in e-commerce is to create a new wave of acquisitions

in the logistics industry. The e-retailers across the globe are trying to create comprehensive

as well as end-to-end operations for their supply chains which has triggered a completely

new round of acquisitions in the logistics sector in 2013 (Roberson, 2013). Major e-retailers

like Google, EBay, Amazon and RedPrairie have acquired various companies in order to

enhance their supply chain as well as logistics capabilities. In a very recent acquisition

Ingram Micro acquired Brightpoint which is a supply chain company in wireless devices.

Ingram Micro did so in order to accelerate its growth in the global supply chain in e-

commerce sector. Brightpoint at present has 2.5 million square feet of extensive warehousing

capabilities.

However the most important trend which is seen amongst e-retailers is to get closer to their

current customer base as done by Amazon by changing its distribution strategy. E-retailers

currently want to provide their shoppers an instant-near gratification, which means they want

to provide their customers’ same-day delivery services (Transport Intelligence, 2013).

According to Rob Rose, CFO Worldwide Express mentioned that supply chain management

does impact the e-commerce sector and efficient supply chain as well as logistics play very

vital role in determining the success of e-commerce (Rose, 2013).

2.6 Supply Chain in E-commerce in Middle East

The E-commerce industry is seen to be growing fast in Middle east and according to the

predictions made by web design company GO-Gulf.com, the ecommerce sales in the MENA

region for B2C will touch $15 billion by 2015 as compared to that of $ 9 billion in 2012

(Rudolph, 2013). Just 15% of all; the businesses in the Gulf Region show online presence

which means there is huge scope for the growth of e-commerce industry in Middle East

region.

It has been found that 66% of the online users in Middle East use Internet for doing product

research for new products and 64% online users prefer online shopping to get better offers

(Rudolph, 2013). The Appendix A attached shows the trend and statistics for E-commerce in

Middle East (Go-Gulf.com, 2013).

The latest development in ecommerce supply chain in Arabian industry is that Wamda’s

portfolio firm ShopGo has released a new Suite called Aramex which is a new module

which helps ecommerce stores to automatically plug in to the various logistics firms

services in direct manner. This Suite automates the shipping rate calculations, shipping,

tracking as well as Cash-on-Delivery and can be used by an ecommerce industry which

works with Aramex (ASC Staff, 2013). Thus this suite helps in pulling the shipping rates in

automatic manner as well as it allows the ecommerce stores request as well as track

shipments, COD orders in direct manner using online interface. Thus it helps in reducing time

as well as hassles for ecommerce companies and requires less team management for the

website (ASC Staff, 2013).

It has been seen that in the emerging e-commerce markets like Middle East, India, China etc.

logistics is the major hurdle. The ecommerce companies first need to understand the local

preferences and then take care of the supply chain issues, payment cultures, adopt multi-

channel approach and payments cultures in order to succeed in Middle east countries (Qing,

2012). Along with the logistics challenge in Middle East another challenge is the flow of

Arabic language from right to left which might need the brands to entirely change their site

navigation (Wigder, 2013). To enhance the supply chain and logistics of ecommerce ventures

in Gulf region the organizations are adopting mainly three strategies like the large online

retailers are building their own supply chain and logistics networks as in case of Flipkart or

JingDong. Enhanced local parcel carriers like in Aramex in Gulf has expanded its offerings

which also covers supply chain component of ecommerce. Lastly the start-ups can also aim

to streamline their market entries in the complex regions by taking help from organizations

like MENA360 which helps in operations, branding , marketing , customer care and

delivering in Middle east region (Wigder, 2013).

2.7 Future of Supply Chain and Logistics for E-commerce

The supply chain and logistics plays vital role in e-commerce and in future social media ,

Mobile Technologies , big data , and Cloud computing will dominate the supply chains. Big

data will provide continuous progress in the sentiment analysis as well as predictive analysis

and will help in overcome the challenges e-commerce organizations face due to quality of

data. Social media would provide platform for start-ups, more acquisitions as well as

numerous case studies. The user interfaces which are designed for supply chain apps will also

get a ‘Social Makeover’. Speech recognition would be embedded in various supply chain

applications as well as enterprises with “Siri” becoming the future of supply chain enterprise

apps. The changing nature of warehouses can be seen from the example of acquisition of

‘Kiva’ by Amazon where Robots are becoming the warehouse parts for tracking inventory in

the warehouse stores.

This year all the major ecommerce retailers like Amazon, Google (Gonzalez, 2013) , eBay,

USPS and Wal-Mart ramped-up their efforts to woo their customers with their same-day

delivery service (WSJ, 2012). Google also took major step by acquiring ‘BufferBox’

(Connors, 2012) which is an efficient locker providing system for its customers in order to

receive the packages from ecommerce online retailers which is similar trend to the ‘Amazon

Locker’ (Gonzalez, 2012).

The ecommerce organizations will see more frequent adoption of alternative fuel vehicles

for transportation like Frito-Lays, Ryder, FedEx, Staples, AT&T, and Sunny Delight have

started adopting alternative fuel vehicles which includes hybrids, electric or natural gas for

fuels for their transportation operations. This will help them in tackling the rising cost of

diesel and at the same time it will help in achieving the sustainability goals also (Gonzalez,

2012).

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Appendix A