The rapid growth of e-commerce and the subsequent logistics challenges means both e-commerce companies and logistics providers have an opportunity to move quickly to address their problems.
The solutions are unlikely to come from e-commerce in-house logistics, for market growth will soon make these unsustainable. The real solutions are more likely to be found in strategic partnerships between e-commerce firms and third-party logistics providers. Indeed, within a few years, we expect to see a transformation in China's e-commerce logistics landscape, where e-commerce plus logistics providers will equal market success.
in barely five years, China's e-commerce market—which makes up almost 90 percent of its overall business-to-consumer (B2C) market—has become a formidable force. E-commerce has expanded at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 90 percent over the past five years, rising from roughly $750 million in 2004 to more than $32 billion in 2009.1 By 2014, we estimate the Chinese e-commerce market will be worth $175 billion.
