Electronic Commerce and Logistics Planning: An Underrated Relationship

Abstract

The study aims to describe the relationship existing between electronic commerce and business logistics, highlighting the impact that such a branch of the new economy will have on the logistics structures, in the next future. The purpose of this paper is also to identify the organizational model characterizing the outbound logistics process and that will most likely be implemented by those companies that will be succesful in the electronic commerce (B2C) of physical products. In order to provide further design advices, a specific section of this paper has been dedicated to the identification of the critical variables that may influence the design of the logistics network, with specific reference to the logistics last mile issue. The analysis of the combination of such variables has allowed the formulation of a reference framework which can easily be used to evaluate the main distribution alternatives: direct (home) delivery to final customer vs. delivery through a logistics platform (sales outlet, cross docking point, local distribution center, etc.).With this framework it is possible to more accurately understand the relationships among customer service requirements and cost levels, variables that can be managed by the network designer and choices of the most effective way to perform the physiacal delivery service.