The Effects of E-Commerce on Retail Supply Chains: How retailers are winning by investing in the future of supply chains

Technology is disrupting the retail industry through the creation of e-commerce and online retail
shopping. While it is much more visible to consumers how this disruption is changing
storefronts, an area of great challenge and opportunity lies in the effect of e-commerce on retail
supply chains. The problem is that manufacturers need to adjust the way they design, plan,
produce and ship their products to support both brick-and-mortar and e-commerce retail.
Instead, manufacturers are simply trying to make their traditional methods of product ideation
and creation for in-store shopping work in e-commerce. A possible cause of this problem is a
lack of education on how to make proper supply chain adjustments so that manufacturers can
successfully support both avenues of e-commerce and in-store retail sales. This study
investigates how companies successfully navigate these challenges through case studies and
provides qualitative examples of best practices that business managers can use across the retail
landscape. By investing in new supply chain technologies and making changes to packaging for
e-commerce items, companies are eliminating inefficiencies that are helping to improve their
business operations and profitability.