As the holiday season drew near, e-commerce retailers were either working anxiously to get their in-house processes ready or were double-checking with partners and service providers on order-fulfillment operations. Fears of revisiting the previous year’s fulfillment problems hounded them during their preparations for the projected high sales of Christmas 2000.1 “This is the season when the last mile will be the most crucial element of e-business,” one observer declared. “Sellers who come up with creative ways to deliver will secure enormous consumer loyalty.”2 What went wrong the preceding year? Online sales were at an all-time high in 1999, but many e-tailers found themselves unable to make timely, cost-effective deliveries. Late deliveries, broken promises and unmet expectations left both consumers and investors dissatisfied.3 In part because of that disappointment, stock prices plunged. E-tailers simply had not had operational processes capable of filling customers’ orders. By 2000, many still did not.4
It is true that e-commerce has improved the efficiency of placing orders. Trading partners communicate, coordinate, share information and manage inventory better as well. But in the future, e-businesses that can deliver the goods and services at a reasonable cost will have the edge. Order fulfillment can be the most expensive and critical operation for both the online and offline businesses of companies engaged... To read the complete article, login or sign-up using the form below.
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