Traditional retail supply chains are different from e-commerce in terms of shipment and delivery, purchases, locations, and the actors involved. Retailers choose attractive, high traffic locations to advertise goods and feature local deliveries for big ticket items. The retail location is important which explains why businesses are willing to pay costs such as rent, utilities, salaries, etc. Expenses incurred by retailers to secure a location are included in the price of goods. With the advance of e-commerce, however, the relationship and interaction between retailers and customers has changed considerably, requiring a new approach in terms of e-commerce retail logistics. Retailers… Read more
With the huge boost in online commerce, it comes to no surprise that this has had a huge impact on the logistics services offered by the companies in the International Forwarding Association. While in traditional brick and mortar based retail, the customer is responsible to go to the retailer to purchase something and is actually performing the “last mile” in the distribution chain, with e-commerce, the customer expects the goods to be delivered to him or her, and thus the last mile delivery is performed by the list of logistics companies instead. Since location is an essential element of retailing,… Read more
