E-Commerce And Its Big Players Analysis

E-commerce and its big players
Today, Ecommerce is the new mantra of business. The Internet provides an effective entrance strategy to the global market, even for the smallest players in the industry. With the universal ability to leverage on this additional dimension created by E-commerce today, which comes at a minimal cost, yet maximum efficiency, there is hardly any business without a supporting e-business platform in today’s world. Online retail giants such as Amazon, and of course, the up and rising Alibaba.com, have successfully created an impressive online presence, and are living examples of how the advent of technology can dramatically revolutionize traditional supply chain concepts. With more than 300 applications being created per
Uncertainties exist in three forms: Supplier, Process and Demand. While uncertainties are great challenges to any organization, the risks and impacts involved can be mitigated through various ways. Careful selection of suppliers based on compatibility, performance record and degree of alignment of objectives and goals, can reduce supplier uncertainty in terms changes in product quality or product defaults. This brings us back to the much-emphasized consideration of partnership compatibility discussed earlier.
Unlike supplier relationships, process uncertainties are subjected to less human error due to the increasing automation of processes. As in the case of a Zalora and Uber collaboration, from the point where customer place their orders, select their delivery option, track their parcels, all the way to the eventual rating of delivery services, automation is involved along the entire supply chain. Frequent checks on these online systems and periodic maintenance can reduce process risks greatly. Well-prepared contingency plans for process failures can alleviate losses and dire chain-effects down the entire supply
This stresses on the need for such research studies focusing on the role of supply chain management practices such as SRM, Postponement and Information Sharing, which tests the reliability of research theories, and aids in improving the performance and competitive advantage of companies. Collaboration with other companies through interconnected channels has gradually become a norm in the new era of business networking. A partnership between Zalora and Uber as such might just be the solution to the various delivery efficiencies we are still facing in today’s supply chains. It effectively solves what is known to be ‘the last mile’ problem, where the last leg of delivery is often costly, yet proves to be much less efficient as compared to the entire supply chain process. It is evident that more can be done to seal the performance gap setting us apart from an optimal supply chain performance. Last but not least, imagine the endless partnerships possibilities; collaborations with organizations such as GoFresh, Mac Cosmetics, Ebay, Q0010 and maybe even F&B enterprises could just pan out better than we ever imagined with instant delivery networks. The ultimate beneficiaries of such supply chain synergies are however, the end-consumers who benefit from lower prices, better quality, better product satisfaction and speed of delivery derived