A new DHL report shows that most companies have failed to fully implement an e-commerce strategy despite recognizing the vital importance of e-commerce in customer retention and satisfaction.
The new insights are from a global survey of nearly 900 decision-makers responsible for logistics or supply chain management and e-commerce.
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The study reveals that 70% of B2C companies and 60% of B2B companies are still working towards the full implementation of their strategy, even though 70% of respondents rate e-commerce as “Very Important” or “Extremely Important” to their business in terms of volume and revenue.
The report, titled “The e-commerce supply chain: Overcoming growing pains,” also uncovered the major barriers to full strategy implementation, which include changing customer expectation, pace of delivery, and limitations in existing infrastructure.
Nabil Malouli, global e-commerce product lead at DHL Supply Chain, said, “It’s clear to see the importance of considering quality customer service within the e-commerce strategy, but with customer expectations constantly evolving and changing, companies are under pressure to keep up with building out their e-commerce offerings—and the new supply chains they require, resulting in the challenge of full implementation.
“Supply chains need to keep up with, and respond to new business models, service expectations and technological needs of customers in order to capture new ones and retain existing ones.”
The evolving demands of e-commerce means that in the next three to five years over 50% of businesses will be making some type of change to their distribution strategy, the report said.
Other insights from the study note that while B2C e-commerce—especially retail—has been around longer, B2B has caught up in terms of offerings and execution quality.
Moreover, the study indicates that escalating consumer expectations is the key challenge for businesses that serve both the B2B and B2C markets. This concern focuses around the pressure to deliver excellent customer service—e.g. ease and convenience of ordering and tracking shipments, and near-instant service.
It also found that there is no single e-commerce distribution method that is dominating the industry. Many e-commerce distribution strategies continue to be evaluated and defined, presenting implementation challenges.
Malouli added, “What companies need in the e-commerce journey depends on where they are coming from—they are all in different places in terms of implementing their e-commerce strategy, which means they will have different strategies and expectations about how to move forward with their supply chains.
“Many companies opt to partner with a 3PL(s) to help them respond to this changing environment while ensuring they have the expertise and flexibility to meet changing customer expectations.”
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