Fulfillment Centers and Delivery Networks for Online Retail Supply Chains

Dear Colleagues,

Online retail has been growing steadily since 2000, but during the last year the pandemic has led to an explosive growth in online orders worldwide. The customer no longer comes to the store, and a retailer must pick orders, pack the items and deliver the orders to the customer address. Further, the order must be fulfilled quickly, same-day or the latest in 3-4 days. This is driving a paradigm shift in how retail supply chains are designed, operated and optimized. Innovative supply chain models, data analytics, and new physical modes of warehousing and transportation are needed to meet the speed and efficiency requirements of online retail. The research community is responding aggressively, and this Special Issue of Logistics will present papers that focus specifically on fulfillment centers and delivery network innovations in online retail.

The growth of online retail is driving a major cost and resource shift from store operations to warehouses and delivery networks. Likewise inventory management objectives are shifting from minimizing stock outs and store inventories to optimized warehouse stocks and fast order picking, and the distribution mode is shifting from pallets to parcels. The papers in the special issue will examine several research topics that address these shifts and present methods and models that facilitate fast fulfillment.

Authors are cordially invited to submit original research papers, review articles, and empirical studies to this special issue of Logistics. Manuscripts or papers can be submitted on the following topics:

1. Fulfillment center layout design and item stocking strategies
2. Warehouse online order picking algorithms
3. Dynamic control of independent seller warehouse inventory levels
4. Omni channel inventory allocation models – fulfillment centers and stores
5. Last mile delivery logistics and networks, including crowd sourced delivery
6. Data analytics applications in online retail supply chains
7. Online order delivery scheduling and prioritization
8. Buy online pickup form store (BOFS) operations design
9. Design and optimization of online grocery fulfillment
10. Logistics modelling of parcel transport and distribution

Prof. Sanchoy Das
Prof. Jingran Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Logistics is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• ecommerce
• order fulfillment
• warehousing
• last mile delivery
• order picking