E-Commerce cold chain fulfillment

Abstract

A challenging part of E-Commerce for perishable consumer packaged goods (PCPG) is the fulfillment. Given the fragile nature of the items shipped, they require a low cost, effective cold chain fulfillment method so as to keep integrity, ensure speed at an affordable low cost for the end consumer. Our research, in partnership with one of the big PCPG items, addressed four aspects of the fulfillment process: Shipments routing, return process, competitive research and packaging techniques. Through a research process, we looked at shipment routing techniques for network optimization and density solutions, return process through different nodes in the supply chain, competitive research looking E-Commerce websites that sell PCPG products and comparing each of them to understand their underlying pricing methods and looked at current packaging techniques, current available and future technologies in packaging. We scored each of the aspects based on three KPIs, speed, quality and cost; we put forth several combinations that focused on each KPI by itself and aimed at maximizing speed or quality or minimizing cost. This research serves to direct focus based on the KPI desired on the aspects that help optimize said KPI and can be generalized to other E-Commerce products requiring cold chain delivery.