e-business operations - Fulfilment and logistics

One of the greatest challenges for eBusiness is actually the fulfilment, or delivery, of the order. It is no coincidence that some of the earliest success stories in eBusiness were firms like Amazon, that started by selling CDs, books and videos online – relatively low-value, non perishable, uniform items that can easily be posted through a standard letter-box.

Products that present particular challenges may show one or more of the following characteristics.

In each case there is one or more suggestions as to how to overcome these possible problems.

Twilight deliveries

The parcels and courier firms, The Royal Mail and Parcelforce have all been geared up towards delivering to and collecting from, businesses in normal office hours on weekdays. Ecommerce deliveries to many consumers have been a particular problem, because many are out at work when deliveries are attempted. This often necessitates a visit to a depot some miles away in the evening or weekend to collect one’s parcel – which may negate any benefits from purchasing on-line.

Some of these courier firms are waking up to this opportunity and are now carrying out ‘twilight’ deliveries, in the early evening, when consumers are more likely to be at home.

Deliveries to place of work

One of the most interesting phenomena is that of consumers having their purchases delivered to their place of work. Some firms report having to take on extra post-room staff just to handle these extra items. Firms that take a co-operative attitude towards this may find that employees consider delivery at work a valuable benefit.

However, some firms find that their merchant agreement with their bank for credit and debt card sales, limits them to posting items to the cardholder’s home address.

Other solutions

Several other approaches have included some kind of lockable box or safe outside the house that the couriers can access with a ‘once-only’ code, to secure the item in the box awaiting the owner’s return. Some examples have even been made with a cooling system, for keeping foodstuffs fresh. A great idea in principle, but suffers from low take-up rates.

Some local post offices are able to hold packages for customers, to be collected at a convenient time – although our local office is never open in the week, when this author would like to collect his packages.

Other local delivery services have experimented with handling delivery of internet purchases, such as milk rounds and Tesco, which is now delivering other goods in timed slots alongside its foods.

Author: Steve Whiteley, January 2007