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Logistics solutions for e-commerce: interaction between hardware and software

After a dip in sales, the constantly booming online retail sector is recovering. In 2023, e-commerce turnover rose to 85.4 billion euros in the B2C sector alone. How is logistics responding to the rising volumes? In addition to logistics concepts for the last mile to the recipient, which counter the rapid increase in delivery traffic, the optimal interaction of hardware and software is one of the key success factors in e-commerce.

Internet retail is changing

E-commerce, short for electronic commerce, describes the buying and selling of goods on the Internet. Depending on who is trading with whom: B2C or D2C, the goods go directly to consumers or, in B2B business, via an intermediary. The latest market segment, C2C - trade between private individuals - is on the rise. The best-known platforms include marketplaces such as eBay, etsy and online portals for services such as Airbnb.

Woman with credit card in front of a computer

E-commerce & logistics: hardware and software

Logistics processes in e-commerce

Trade and logistics both belong to the services family. The relationship is undisputed. Some retail groups even claim to be logistics service providers at heart. This view is particularly understandable from the perspective of e-commerce. Here, turnover is generated with typical logistics services.

The logistics services primarily include:

  • Picking,
  • Bundle
  • Packing
  • and shipping.

Highly complex logistics software controls the associated processes, some of which are highly automated.

Hardware and software for logistics in e-commerce

Apart from the World Wide Web, logistics is a key success factor in e-commerce, if not the most important enabler. Depending on the process, the right hardware is needed, such as:

  • Vehicles,
  • Conveyor belts
  • Printers and labelers
  • Packaging machines
  • or scanner.

In addition, software plays a key role, some of which already uses AI to control warehouse (WMS) and transportation (TMS) processes. Ideally, solutions for the following work areas should be interlinked:

  • Inventory and warehouse management through to fulfillment control
  • Order and shipping management including returns solution
  • Transport management with tracking, fleet and route optimization

The fast processes in e-commerce meet the increasing demands of end consumers with regard to the delivery process. This requires unhindered access to data and an uninterrupted flow of information. With the right software, warehouse strategies can be implemented, the routes of order pickers can be optimally planned, suitable CEP service providers can be selected and processes can be automated. All of this increases efficiency.

Cost factor shipping in e-commerce

The internal processes between incoming and outgoing goods can already be excellently planned today. The uncertainties begin with the handover to the parcel service provider. With demand steadily increasing, e-commerce faces challenges such as:

  • Rising energy and fuel costs,
  • Shortage of skilled workers and constantly rising personnel costs,
  • Expenses due to environmental laws and regulations
  • or loss of time due to traffic jams and lack of stopping options

These are primarily the problems of shipping service providers and associated transport companies. However, these have an impact on shippers in the form of price increases on the competitive shipping costs.

Electromobility & micro-hubs: a solution for logistics?

Deliveries by drone or autonomous vehicles are still a long way off. This makes the solutions with which CEP service providers can meet the challenges of the last mile all the more interesting. Electromobility is already playing a key role in this, as it can alleviate the problem of local pollutant and noise emissions.

One of the pioneers in this field is the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML. At the end of September 2024, it presented the first reliable data for a shift to low-traffic times of day through the use of alternative drives in its "Low-noise logistics handbook" and handed it over to the Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Transport of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Particularly quiet drive technologies include electric motors. They open up completely new perspectives for e-commerce, such as night-time delivery in the city. Vans could supply central micro-hubs at night, which serve as a starting point for deliveries by cargo bike, for example.

You can read about the specific projects for delivery concepts that companies are already testing in our specialist article "Sustainable urban logistics: concepts against urban collapse".

Optimum utilization through tracking

Today, customers can track live as the shipment approaches its destination. Sensors monitor, track and secure freight in transit, especially when it comes to expensive goods or sensitive food or pharmaceuticals. Intelligent and integrated solutions help all partners in the supply chain to make optimum use of their existing capacities. This is the basis for e-commerce solutions in which hardware and software interlock and, above all, make optimum use of scarce human resources.