Introduction
With the further promotion and application of e-commerce, logistics is becoming necessary. Logistics and the importance of e-commerce are more and more getting people‟s attention, but the relationship between e-commerce and logistics still needs to be explored.
The purposes is to research the relationship between e-commerce and logistics in general and in our new hyperlocal startup FlashFetch.
Literature
The most popular strategy in logistics is to outsource one or more logistics activities/services to 3PL firms (Gibson and Cook, 2001).
3PL firms may perform any logistics activity at any point in the supply chain. Logistics activities most frequently outsourced by manufacturers …show more content…
This difficulty can be overcome by the use of various information technologies including the Internet, email, WWW, and EDI. In the new economy, which is characterized by globalization and is information intensive, the focus has been on core competencies, providing real-time information, globalizing service demand, visibility in key performance indicators, collaborating in supply chain operations, and developing E-Logistics. Rao et al. (1993) discuss the role of 3PL in the operations of global firms.
The impact of e-commerce on logistics service providers has been discussed by Delfmann et al. (2002).
An electronic commerce portal can be used as a marketing channel in collaboration with existing intermediaries or through bypassing intermediaries––disintermediation will provide high leverage opportunities to the logistics function and increase its flexibility. Hence the development of E-Logistics becomes essential for success in global operations (Hesse, 2002; Aldin and Stahre, 2003).
Gudmundsson and Walczuck (1999) discuss the development of electronic markets in 7 logistics with logistics brokerage systems (LBS). LBS is an open online information and integration system for transportation and logistics services, offering customs and financial links, pricing, space availability, booking capability for freight door-to-door and a single point of payment through clearing …show more content…
The objectives of E-Logistics are: (1) reducing operating costs, (2) meeting product delivery deadlines, and (3) improving customer services (Leung et al., 2000; . 4PL is the integration of all companies involved along the supply chain.
Web-based logistics information systems have several advantages, as less human intervention is involved. This minimizes errors in the exchange of information, hence facilitating good decision-making (Delfman et al., 2002; Leung et al., 2000). The advantages include: real-time inventory information, single data entry to minimize human error as the data are input by the customers themselves with no need to reenter the data, real-time online ordering functions, and multi-level password control so that different functions can have different access levels controlled by authorized