Issues and Specifics of the E-marketplaces Logistics Support
MAGAZINE №5 (94) October 2019
AUTHORS VINOGRADOV A.B.
CATEGORY E-commerce corporate logistics Logistic integration and coordination Logistic services market Retail companies’ corporate logistics
ABSTRACT
As the e-commerce market develops it has been gradually consolidating. More and more e-marketplaces appear over time. They unite a number of internet-retailers, significant part of which is represented by small and medium enterprises. Active growth of e-marketplaces poses new challenges for the e-commerce logistics. Great number of parties (both consumers and sellers), constantly growing assortment range, different models of interaction with suppliers, in combination with ongoing geographical expansion, have been considerably complicating e-marketplaces logistics support.
The author of the paper suggests the classification of e-marketplaces, conducts comparative analysis of the biggest electronic retail platforms operating in Russia, studies typical issues of their logistics activity, examines the opportunity of the horizontal collaboration mechanism's application to tackle some of these problems. By applying the methods of comparative analysis, classification, analogy, as well as the methods of horizontal collaboration, the author has gained the following results:
1. Defined the factors influencing complex nature of the e-marketplaces logistics compared to the logistics activity of pure internet retailers
2. Formulated conditions under which horizontal collaboration at the e-marketplaces can be used in the efficient and effective way
3. Proposed options for the distribution of the groups of functions between the participants of the horizontal collaboration project (internet retailers, marketing intermediaries specialized in introducing products to different virtual platforms, e-marketplace, logistics service providers, banks and/or fintech companies, project curator ensuring the parties interaction)
4. Suggested application of the Shapley vector method to share the gains of the e-marketplace's sellers collaboration.
Keywords: logistics of internet retailing ecommerce horizontal cooperation horizontal collaboration emarketplace marketplace
Theoretical Aspects of Return Flows Management in Internet Retailing
MAGAZINE №6(89) December 2018
AUTHORS
CATEGORY Analytics and reviews E-commerce corporate logistics Return flows management (reverse logistics)
ABSTRACT
The article deals with the issues of reverse logistics in internet retail. The authors provide a literature review of articles on the practice of managing return flows in internet retail and analyze the features of reverse logistics in this area.
In the article, the authors consider the existing approaches in reverse logistics in internet retail, analyze the barriers to their implementation and ways of return flows handling. The three levels of decision-making in the return management in internet retail logistics and specific tasks for each of them are defined. The result of the work was an algorithm reflecting the sequence of formation of the system of control of return flows.
This procedure makes it possible to take into account the characteristics of managing return flows in internet retail (a large number of reasons for returns, handling complexity, etc.) and base to manage return flows and implement the control function in accordance with them.
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Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm as a Means of Efficiency Improvement for the Last Mile Delivery in Internet Retailing
MAGAZINE №4(87) August 2018
AUTHORS
YUNEEVA D.R. - School of Logistics, National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia)
CATEGORY E-commerce corporate logistics Optimization and mathematical modelling Transportation in logistics
ABSTRACT
Growth rates of internet retailing in Russia outperform brick-and-mortar segment, which raises attractiveness of e-commerce for new players. However a growing number of newcomers make e-tailers seek new competitive advantages and pay specific attention to the logistics support of their businesses. Last mile delivery tends to be one of the most important, though also problematic logistics processes in online retailing. Potential area of improvement for this process involves application of heuristic routing methods. These methods allow to find a nearly optimal solution with substantially lower cost of resources compared to traditional methods.
The paper focuses on the heuristic method of a travelling salesman problem solution complicated by the specifics of internet retailing (big number of clients and, hence, delivery points). This method is based on the simulation of ants’ behaviour seeking the shortest path between their colony and the source of food. The authors describe a mathematical model of an ant colony optimization algorithm (ACO) and review its basic steps using the numerical example. Steps of the ACO include definition of the number of nodes, distance between them as well as pheromone concentration; location of couriers (delivery vans) in the nodes; identification of the probability of moving from the initial point (node) to all other points; selection of the movement direction; repetition of the preceding steps (apart from the initial one) for a new node and for the following ones up to the end of the cycle; pheromone renewal; accomplishment of the next cycles (iterations); finding the shortest delivery route. Comparative analysis has shown major ACO benefits including fast solution of high-dimensional problems and algorithm applicability for the non-stationary systems with changing parameters (much resembling online retailing). An opportunity to apply ACO for the last mile delivery routing referring to the vast majority of e-tailers will significantly depend on the speed of development and proliferation of the respective software as well as on improving of selection and adaptation of the algorithm fine-tuning parameters.
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