Consumer Logistics: Surfing the Digital Wave

Digital technology has changed the way we work, socialize, shop, play and learn. This book offers a stimulating exploration of how digitization has begun transforming the prevailing global logistics system into a self-service and sharing economy, and ultimately provides a vision of the monumental changes likely to overflow into the business landscape.

Consumer Logistics thoughtfully assesses the challenges posed to businesses as the Internet of Things, 3D printing and other yet-to-come technologies start to connect humans and physical objects in forms that will further transform lifestyles. Through a review of the evolutionary journey of logistics management, this book argues that the fourth wave of global logistics is fast giving way to the fifth wave of consumer logistics, which will see consumers adapt to the seamless offline-online purchasing experience brought by Omnichannel Retailing. By considering how logistics and digital technologies will interact to redefine consumer logistics, Peter J. Rimmer and Booi Hon Kam argue that this outcome is likely to reflect the character of the sixth great logistics wave: personal logistics.

Thought-provoking, and contemporary in topic, this book will be of great value to business people interested in future trends, logistics professionals and operators, as well as academics and students worldwide working on logistics, supply chains and digital transformations.

Peter J. Rimmer Emeritus Professor, School of Culture, History and Language, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra and Booi Hon Kam, Professor, School of Accounting, Information Systems and Supply Chain, College of Business and Law, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia