by Walther Ploos van Amstel
In developing economies, nano stores in urban and rural areas face different infrastructural, operational, and financial challenges. How can urban nano stores compete with supermarket chains as they enter the market? How can rural nano stores provide more services at affordable prices to sustain their operations?
An underexposed, but highly fragmented urban freight flow is the delivery to small, independent retailers, or ‘nanostores’, of which there are an estimated 50 million globally. Bram Kin, in his dissertation, investigates supply models for nanostores and ways to improve their efficiency.
Micro-shopping trips, defined as trips that take less than five minutes, are becoming increasingly common thanks to grocery services that let customers order online and pick up in-store. The increase is attributed to lockers, where shoppers can pick up preordered items. Bryan Pearson reports about it in Forbes.
A mathematical model is developed by researchers from Vrije Universiteit Brussels and TU Eindhoven to calculate the costs of alternative distribution set-ups for last mile transportation in a FMCG supply chain with small and fragmented volumes. The model is based on input from logistics cost models for urban areas combined with cost variables related to …
City logistics will become more complex and costly. The demand for city logistics grows because of urbanization. Most urbanization takes place in emerging economies leading, amongst others, to the rapid emergence of highly dense megacities. Research by Vrije Universiteit Brussels (B) looks at alternative urban freight options for deliveries to megacities