Electronic supply chain management: does the consumer benefit?

Retail companies use both electronic supply chain management and traditional supply chain management to replenish products. Our research investigates whether consumers are realising improvements at the retailer level when electronic supply chain management is employed as compared to traditional, manual supply chain management by examining a large retailer. The sample provides data for products replenished using electronic supply chain management and products using traditional supply chain management within the same retailer. Analysis investigates the differences with respect to price and availability to determine if consumer needs have been met. The findings show that electronic supply chain management results in a higher price as compared to traditional supply chain management.consumer needs; electronic commerce; electronic supply chain management; e-SCM; e-commerce; retailing; retail companies; retail prices