Bottlenecks In E-Commerce

In developed economies, e-commerce logistics is the biggest driver of change in the physical distribution networks, which has evolved substantially over the past 45 years.

- Prashant Bhatmule

As e-commerce continues to grow, most shippers, particularly multi-channel shippers, are only beginning to work out what this will entail for their distribution network infrastructures.

Key Trends

In the coming years the consumers are expected to complete most shopping journeys via multiple devices like smartphones as shopping continues to gain ground and persistent acceptability. Selling would definitely increase during big online shopping days, resulting in decline of visits to malls/retails stores; merchant retailers will see a web influence on their in-store sales. Marketing will shift from being device focused to people focused; making advertising ads more relevant and non-intrusive with digital marketing as a key factor for success. Instant delivery services will become common—expectations on service will have no limits.

Return trends are degrowing, with more of corrections in the process of selection and multiple filters being applied on incoming quality/variety etc, the service in this scenario asks for a faster response. Singles Day, celebrated in China was the world's biggest online shopping day of the year, with Alibaba alone reporting sales worth $14.3bn, a sixty percent increase from last year. These big online shopping days will get even bigger. With the coming in of GST, facilitation of e-commerce industry has grown even though it calls for a certain part of centralisation. GST is going to play a major role in expansion of E-commerce industry.