E-Commerce Faces Logistics Nightmare.

As online orders from consumers and businesses soar past the 2 billion per year mark, Internet sellers will be faced with logistics chaos, according to a report by Forrester Research. Forrester_s report "Mastering Commerce Logistics" predicts that demand for order fulfillment solutions will reshape the existing landscape as logistics suppliers evolve to serve the small-package, individual-oriented needs of commerce site operators. To date, order fulfillment has not been a serious e-commerce issue because most Internet sellers have limited the number products offered on their sites and executed fulfillment in-house. But as online sales move past the experimental phase, three factors -- an expanded selection of products sold online, the need to move a large volume of small parcels, and rising customer expectations -- will combine to put new pressures on order fulfillment systems. "No one is prepared for the exponential growth in parcel deliveries that online sales will generate," said Stacie McCullough, Business Applications Research analyst at Forrester. "Firms that fail to attack order fulfillment with the same vigor as online selling will experience customer defection, funding attrition, and distribution nightmares." According to Forrester, companies can meet the demands of online selling by developing a fulfillment system that delivers end-to-end logistics, which Forrester defines as package visibility and service continuity from buy bottom to final destination.