26. Trends in E-commerce, Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Over the last decade e-commerce has grown to a multi-billion business. “Online-shopping” and “Electronic payment” are typical expressions that are associated with e-commerce but they only describe the non-material communication between buyer and seller. The manufacturing and transportation process from raw materials in production facilities to a finished product at the customer location cannot be accomplished via the internet. It requires the solid handling of goods. E-commerce technologies can support the administration that goes alongside with this process but they do not replace the required physical treatment. This chapter takes a look the interdependencies of logistics, supply chain management and e-commerce. The first section explains how e-commerce, supply chain management and logistics are linked whereas the second section provides an overview of advanced technologies that enable the transportation of goods along the supply chain. A selection of state-of-the-art business and technology trends is presented in the third section.