Home Delivery And Last-mile Logistics

The present paper will aim at understanding the influence of e-Commerce on~1logistics,and especially on its last part:the last-mile logistics.Logistics has been studied for centuries,especially by French people who created it as part of their military studies.The last-mile logistics,however,has not been studied for long,as it is considered to be a new discipline.It emerges in the late 1990's.But,it became more and more important as e-Commerce emerged.Thus,the existing literature shows how e-commerce has reinforced the“hubs and spokes”model.Studies have shown the Internet-enabled supply chain(Dr.David Anderson,Stanford),the neighbourhood effects with trials on Internet(Bell&Song,2007)or even the long-tail theory(Chris Anderson,2004).But,none spoke about the paradox of home deliveries:despite the cost and the complexity of last-mile logistics,e-commerce has generalized the use of home deliveries.The last mile is more and more constraining,as it represents the most costly and the most inefficient part of the supply chain.This is particularly important for our thesis as I will use this starting point to present the paradox of home deliveries.It is said to be the more complex and the more costly part of the entire supply chain and yet,it seems that home delivery has become the norm,being indivisible from online sales.This is true in China as well as in France but solutions are different due to economic,demographic and cultural specificities.What is the influence of home deliveries on other deliveries?Why has it become the norm?And to what extent in France and China?...