Consumer logistics tradeoffs in EGS environment

Even with advantages of fastness, convenience, time saving and low price, whether E-Grocery Shopping (EGS) is accepted by consumers is mostly determined by its efficient logistics service provided for customers taking into consideration groceries´ characteristics such as perishability, idiosyncrasy and intensive experience. The rigorous definition of Consumer Logistics was given and the motivations of its formation were analyzed. Then, tradeoffs online grocers faced in their consumer logistics strategy were discussed in detail. The results indicate that consumer logistics can be accepted by consumers and there will be a bright development prospect in the future when such issues as freshness tradeoff, consumption habit tradeoff, pickingup tradeoff and unattended delivery tradeoff are addressed.