There will
be no
room for
intermediaries
TRADITIONAL logistics providers who fail to adapt to new challenges from Internet-based business face exclusion from the trade.
That's according to the Internet new service Schednet which points out that some sophisticated Internet-based technologies already allow sellers to carry out tasks faster and more cheaply than existing logistics companies.
As a result, any firm acting as an intermediary between a supplier and their customer is at risk of going out of business.
They believe the way forward is for logistics companies to gather as much information about customer needs as possible and to adapt their own marketing efforts to fulfil these needs.
Electronic commerce in the shipping and warehousing industries was responsible for about 1% of all Internet-based deals in 1997, according to the report.
This share is expected to surge by 17% over the next three years.
This will radically alter the shape of the industry, squeezing logistics firms to become even more customer-friendly.
