Improving An Omnichannel Company's Logistics Support

Both in the Russian and global markets, the e-commerce market has been steadily growing over the past 5-7 years. This fact, in turn, indicates the dynamic penetration of the online trading format into the lives of the population, which receives various benefits from such developments. For businesses, this means an increase in the number of companies that specialize either only in the e-commerce segment, or combine the “traditional” format with the addition of various manifestations of online commerce (these companies are called “omnichannel”). Thus, retail representatives are actively implementing digital solutions to improve the level of service and attract a customer audience, increase operational efficiency and gain financial advantages. However, the transition to an online trading format implies various difficulties and barriers in implementing such a strategy. These include logistical challenges and problems typical of this transformation process. After analyzing the specifics of logistics support for omnichannel companies, most conclusions incline to the fact that the most important and encompassing all levels of management in the company (mainly strategic, from which the corresponding changes to the lower levels originate) is the problem of forming the optimal configuration of the logistics network (that is, solving the problem of finding the optimal number and location of logistics facilities in the network). Thus, within the framework of the general research topic (namely, logistics support for omnichannel companies), this master's thesis will focus on the above-mentioned research area. The relevance of this study is determined by the need to develop a set of measures aimed at the optimal process of reorganizing the logistics network of companies that enter new sales channels (online format). The process of reorganizing the retailer's logistics network, which begins to enter online sales channels, is at least caused by the appearance of new objects in the network, their new role, new distribution schemes, and so on