Extending the Supply Chain: How CuttingEdge Companies Bridge the Critical Last Mile into Customers Homes

Why have so many ecommerce companies failed in the last few years? In many cases, its the failure to figure out how to extend the supply chain directly to customers that keeps a company from succeeding. Using cuttingedge delivery practices and technologybased order processing, companies can minimize costs, customize their products, provide increased service and convenience, and increase customer loyaltyall leading to a more robust bottom line.Extending the Supply Chain examines indepth some of the most highprofile practitioners of telephone and Internetbased order processing and fulfillment. The authors bring you detailed looks at:Amazon, Dell, and FreshDirect, which use the decoupled extended supply chain model to take customassembled or custompackaged orders from an assembly plant or distribution center to the delivery destination using thirdparty delivery specialists like FedEx and UPS. The semiextended supply chain model used at companies like Lowes Foods and Best Buy involves processing orders over the Internet or phone and packing the customers order at their chosen local retail outlet for pickup at the customers convenience. This strategy is often the most economical for brickandmortar retailers, since it primarily involves the use of existing physical assets and personnel.The fully extended supply chain is more costintensive, but may be the most customercentric option. Orders are picked and packaged not at central locations, but at local stores, then delivered to the customers home, improving on the oldfashioned delivery boy that local grocers employed a century ago. Online retailers such as Albertsons and Tesco have developed a base of customers who will pay for the convenience and level of service that are the hallmarks of the fully extended model.The centralized extended supply chain employs regional distribution centers instead of local stores, but is still able to provide more personalized delivery service (including prespecified delivery times) than the decoupled model. An indepth study of Office Depot, the thirdlargest online retailer (which has stores but does most fulfillment of Internet orders through its regional DCs) shows just how effective this model can be when customers require elements of speed, service, and cost control.Extending the Supply Chain features dozens of clear examples, charts and graphs, and practical tools to help you establish and maintain a dynamic, customerfocused fulfillment operation, and offers proactive strategies for seamlessly integrating marketing and technology initiatives into your supply chain strategy. Examine the four models, and the authors recommendations for adapting and implementing each one, to determine which one will help your supply chain stretch all the way to its only acceptable destination the home of a happy and loyal customer.