B2c eCommerce is gaining increasing importance across different industries and it is expected to grow in the future. If compared to offline market, B2c eCommerce opens new challenges for companies, in particular on the last mile delivery, the most expensive part of the delivery process. Our research wants to shed light on the economic, environmental and social sustainability of last mile delivery process, through the development of quantitative assessment models and the investigation of innovative solutions.
Logistics and B2C eCommerce
About the project
Principal Investigators: Riccardo Mangiaracina, Marco Melacini, Alessandro Perego, Angela Tumino
Researcher team: Riccardo Mangiaracina, Marco Melacini, Alessandro Perego, Sara Perotti, Angela Tumino, Arianna Seghezzi, Chiara Siragusa
Funders: BRT, DHL Express, GLS, Milkman, Poste, Stef
Duration: 2015 – onwards
Partners: Multiple
KEY RESEARCH QUESTIONS
B2c eCommerce is gaining increasing importance in many countries and across different industries, and it is expected to grow in the future. If compared to offline market, B2c eCommerce opens new challenges for companies, in particular for the last mile delivery process – i.e. the delivery of products ordered online to the final consumer. Last mile delivery is the most expensive part of the delivery process, due to the small dimension of orders and the high service level required by customers. In this scenario, our research activity is focused on the:
- identification of the main factors affecting the last mile delivery performances;
- analysis of the innovative last mile delivery solutions;
- development of assessment models to quantify both costs and environmental impacts of last mile deliveries;
- understanding of the social (e.g. traffic congestions, new role of retail stores in urban areas) impact of last mile deliveries.
Research activities are carried out also through interactive workshops where both logistics service providers and B2c eCommerce merchants give their contributions, sharing their data and experiences to feed and tune the models developed by the research team. Results are disseminated not only through scientific papers, but also the events of the B2c eCommerce and the Contract Logistics observatories.
OUTPUTS & IMPACTS
- Giuffrida, M., Mangiaracina, R., Miragliotta, G., Perotti, S., Tumino, A., «Modelling the environmental impact of omni-channel purchasing in the apparel industry: the role of logistics», International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, Forthcoming
- Mangiaracina, R., Perego, A., Perotti, S., & Tumino, A. (2016), «Assessing the environmental impact of logistics in online and offline B2C purchasing processes in the apparel industry», International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, Vol. 23 No. 1, pp. 98-124.
- Giuffrida, M., Mangiaracina, R., Perego, A., Tumino, A. Profitability of different “click and collect” models in egrocery: A logistics perspective (2017) Proceedings of the Summer School Francesco Turco, 2017-September, pp. 334-340
- Giuffrida, M., Mangiaracina, R., Tumino, A. Home Delivery vs Parcel Lockers: an economic and environmental assessment. Proceedings of XXI Summer School” Francesco Turco”-Industrial Systems Engineering, (2016), 225-230
PARTNERS
- B2c eCommerce Observatory (www.osservatori.net), with more than 20 partners supporting the research project, and a community of 350 merchants;
- Contract Logistics “Gino Marchet” Observatory (www.osservatori.net), with more than 40 partners supporting the research project, and an advisory board made up of 30 managers operating in prominent companies;
- DASTU: Department of Architecture and Urban Studies of Politecnico di Milano (www.dastu.polimi.it)
