Collaboration in urban distribution of online grocery orders
The International Journal of Logistics Management
ISSN: 0957-4093
Article publication date: 7 September 2018
Issue publication date: 26 October 2018
Abstract
Purpose
Population growth, urbanisation and the increased use of online shopping are some of the key challenges affecting the traditional logistics model. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the distribution of grocery products ordered online and the subsequent home delivery and click and collect services offered by online retailers to fulfil these orders. These services are unsustainable due to increased operational costs, carbon emissions, traffic and noise. The main objective of the research is to propose sustainable logistics models to reduce economic, environmental and social costs whilst maintaining service levels.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors have a mixed methodology based on simulation and mathematical modelling to evaluate the proposed shared logistics model using: primary data from a major UK retailer, secondary data from online retailers and primary data from a consumer survey on preferences for receiving groceries purchased online. Integration of these three data sets serves as input to vehicle routing models that reveal the benefits from collaboration by solving individual distribution problems of two retailers first, followed by the joint distribution problem under single decision maker assumption.
Findings
The benefits from collaboration could be more than 10 per cent in the distance travelled and 16 per cent in the time required to deliver the orders when two online grocery retailers collaborate in distribution activities.
Originality/value
The collaborative model developed for the online grocery market incentivises retailers to switch from current unsustainable logistics models to the proposed collaborative models.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are indebted to the three anonymous referees and the Associate Editor for their comments and suggestions that helped improve the context and the presentation of the material in the paper. This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 635773, U-TURN (www.u-turn-project.eu/).
Citation
Zissis, D., Aktas, E. and Bourlakis, M. (2018), "Collaboration in urban distribution of online grocery orders", The International Journal of Logistics Management, Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 1196-1214. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-11-2017-0303
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited