Importance of Logistics

Logistics is the planning and moving of supplies, food, equipment and people from the point of the supplier to the place/people who need them. The military operations of the British suffered significantly because of a logistical system that was not able to sustain supply lines. The 3000-mile journey that the supplies had to make from the host country to the New World was an instance when this supply system failed the British. This inability would sometimes be caused by weather that “struck convoys and the ships would be forced to turn back or be diverted to other places. Others would continue on with the journey and then have to wait for the weather to break while their cargoes rotted” or died, and would not make it to the New World. Additional causes would be “profiteering, poor supply procedures and privateering” (McCoy, 2012).

The definition of E-Commerce or E-Tailing is replacing the traditional relationship of buying and selling in person or the phone with the use of the Internet, Smart Phones and networking. The more people that use the Internet regularly, the more Internet commerce increases. This causes a continual loop of improvements and innovations of which businesses must be aware. Most economists see e-commerce as a market segment that leads to intensive price competition and consumers armed with greater knowledge. E-commerce has changed business models globally, and allows customers to engage in the process of shopping either online or to a destination. Brick and mortar stores do have a conundrum do you want traffic into the store, or do you want the sale based on ease of shopping and/or convenience? (Eisingerich).

Lang and Bressolles (2013) conducted a study on the “Economic Performance and Customer Expectation in e-Fulfillment Systems: A Multi-Channel Retailer Perspective”. In order to identify their findings and evaluate the economic performances on the four e-fulfillment systems, they performed a method to evaluate the theoretical and empirical points of view gathered from conducting interviews with various employees within retail companies. Based on a literature review in supply chain management and in marketing, five economic performance and four customer expectation indicators are identified.

Logistics is planning and executing of the movement and support of forces. When examining logistics I have to draw from my most

The word logistics originated from the Greek word logistikos; meaning “skilled at calculating”. In military terms it can be defined as

In reality, the Logistics Officer job in the Army can be broken into two distinct jobs. The first job is probably the most widely understood in an Army context; that is, the support of troops in training for and during operations. In this job, the Logistics Officer must provide logistical support to the fighting forces while at all times being ready to join the fight themselves. The second, less recognised job, involves providing logistical advice and support to the local Army establishment in support of daily operations. The necessary duality of this job becomes more apparent when attempting to analyse its design in terms of existing theories.

Incorporating the logistics in the planning process is a key task to achieve important military outcomes. Clausewitz mentioned that “For two reasons the problem of supply has assumed much greater importance in modern war …First, armies in general are now much larger than those of the Middle Ages …second, a war now tends to be more of one piece, and the fighting forces are in constant readiness for action”. What Clausewitz meant is that warfare became more regular, better organized, and more oriented to its political objective. However, Clausewitz offered varied set of contradictory logistics points of view. Jomini , in contrast to Clausewitz, defined logistics “as the art of moving armies that comprises the order and details of marches

Electronic commerce has been there for a long time now, and it is a practice that is practiced by peoples from Germany, France, and the US on a daily basis. Since its inception around 40 years ago, e-commerce has continued to grow as innovations, technologies and a lot of business reverting to the use of the e-commerce. The aspect of buying and selling of goods in the early 1960s was sluggish with the traditional way of mailing of documents being replaced with the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), which would later pave a way to the electronic commerce. After the e-commerce, however, the practice was not more reliable as it still had many challenges (Tsolis, 2009). For instance, it was not easy for buyers to see products from the comfort of their homes and more so, the methods of accessing the information were limited.

A steady increase in the popularity of online sales has caused a major push towards e-commerce in the retail industry.

Business like Amazon wants to make buying item from their business easier for customers. This is why Amazon offers E-retailing which gives customer option to go shopping online. The internet has had impact change on consumers shopping habit as shopping online has numerous advantages which is why online shopping continues to gain popularity. Some of the advantages of E-retailing is that it’s convenient as consumers are able to go shopping at home which could help them save cost on travelling and also gives consumers an option to compare prices of different products as there are wide range of products being sold online.

E-commerce is a product that has been available since the early 90’s. It is something that people are familiar with. A product that is now part and parcel of people’s lives.

The continuous development of Internet leads to the growth of e-commerce. The electronic commerce is growing constantly due to the continuously increasing number of mobile and online users in the market, primarily the emerging markets. Besides that, the development of the Information Technology (IT), such as the advance of paying processes and the improvements of shipping method also the main reason to cause the growth of electronic commerce (John Ingham, 2015). Most consumers accept e-commerce as their feasible alternative in the purchase of goods and

Compare the other retailers, logistics is an essential problem in e-commerce and e-business. Over country shipping and one-day shipping are more and more popular in the past years, like Amazon one day shipping, Amazon fresh keeps food in a good condition and deliver in a specific time. Retail leaders Amazon started same-day deliveries and drone shipping careers in 2015, but it hasn't expanded to all industry. The customer's satisfaction degree is closely connected with delivery ability, which makes the logistic problem more important.

This is a research project aimed at four different topics within e-commerce and the dynamic landscape of logistics within this emerging field. I will first be focusing on current landscape of e-commerce. Secondly the focus will be shifted to a global perspective and the difference of markets based on region. Thirdly I will cover the future trends of e-commerce, and the differences that we may see. Finally, I will present data on select countries and how they are affected by e-commerce currently and the changes that we can expect to see in the future. While researching this broad and developing topic, I have found that there are a handful of takeaways that can be seen in the entirety of this paper:

E-commerce brings changes in the distribution system, having more flexibility on products transaction and transaction between businesses, suppliers and customers. Online businesses cover the gap between the costumers and the distribution centres.