E-commerce strategies are lacking, says DHL

A majority of companies have failed to fully implement an e-commerce strategy despite recognising its importance, according to DHL Supply Chain’s its latest research report on the evolution of e-commerce supply chains.

The report the e-commerce supply chain: Overcoming growing pains found that 70 per cent of B2C companies and 60 per cent of B2B companies are still working towards the full implementation of their e-commerce strategy despite 70 per cent of respondents rating e-commerce as “very important” or “extremely important” to their business in terms of volume and revenue.

Businesses must therefore resolve their e-commerce challenges to unlock its full value. The report also uncovered the major barriers to full strategy implementation, which include changing customer expectation, pace of delivery, and limitations in existing infrastructure.

“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,” said DHL Supply Chain global e-commerce product lead, Nabil Malouli.

“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 report can be found here.