E-Commerce and End Delivery Issues

Abstract

E-commerce businesses have been undergoing rapid development for the last five years in the United States and for the past two years in Europe. This sustained growth illustrates the existence of a demand for this type of service, particularly among the youth. Beyond the startup phase, e-commerce companies are continuing to generate significant losses, which point to organisational defects, the most serious being logistic support to this business. Analysis of the e-commerce issue is delicate, given the haziness of the activity's perimeter. E-commerce startups offer services similar to traditional mail-order, and consumer retailing is not clearly stating its objectives in creating its own e-commerce sites.

Logistics is not an organisational technique that is adapted to the rapid and unpredictable changes that e-commerce is experiencing today. Logistics related problems in e-commerce vary according to the type of commercial activity involved, but they are often considerable and sometimes result from the precipitation with which these activities were set up.

Citation

Stumm, M. and Bollo, D. (2004), "E-Commerce and End Delivery Issues", Daganzo, C.F. (Ed.) Logistics Systems for Sustainable Cities, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 405-419. https://doi.org/10.1108/9780080473222-029