Impact of e-commerce on supply chain management. A literature research and case studies in India

The impact of Indian E-commerce B2C industry on Supply chain management (SCM) is a crucial topic in the last decade since the conventional supply chain activities are transformed into an Information technology oriented practices. A number of big companies and start ups have been trying to dominate the e-commerce B2C sector. E-commerce industry has influenced so many variables in the supply chain; suppliers, consumer purchasing behavior, information technologies, logistics, inventory and warehousing management. In the competetive economy where many big companies and several start-ups are trying to take hold of the market share, it is very essential to understand the overall impact of the e-commerce industry on different levels of Supply chain management. The Supply chain management distribution channel is mainly concentrated for this paper and it starts from the moment the product is available with the retailer or supplier and ends with the order fulfillment of the customer. This paper focusses on how Indian e-commerce industry have impacted the field of Supply chain management and the case studies of two big giants of Indian e-commerce; Flipkart and Amazon enhances the knowledge about the impact of e-commerce sector on several supply chain activities. By interviewing the top management from both the companies, it gives a proper insight to know the impact in real time. Literature review and case studies have raised few research questions which are answered through this paper, however, there are many limitations in Indian market which doesn’t allow these companies to function efficently and they are also been mentioned in the end of this paper. Summary of the findings guides through the channel to know more about various situations of uncertainty. Not many researchers have studied about Indian e-commerce industry and the findings from this paper would fill the gap in the literature and could help in conducting any further researches. At the end of this paper, it has been found that their is a huge impact of e-commerce industry on SCM distribution channel activities and it is quite different from the conventional supply chain which involves manufacturer, distributor, retailer and customer. Internet plays an important role and further research should be conducted in this area and this paper would provide the proper justice for other researchers to carry out their work and fill the gap in existing literature.