Efficiency Evaluation of Last-Mile Delivery Processes in E-Commerce

Over the past few years, retail has undergone significant organizational changes, developing from offline structures and small retail outlets to multi-channel sales systems, where online shopping takes a significant place. In general, in 2019, e-commerce turnover amounted to 26.7 trillion US dollars, and the share of Business to Consumer (B2C) sales in 2020 was estimated at almost 4.9 trillion US dollars. Despite the growing popularity of the B2C segment, presumably, research in this area is limited to review articles, while questions of methodology are not actively discussed. At the same time, sales in this segment are constantly growing, and the requirements for sellers in terms of quality of service, as well as competition, are high. There is an obvious need in approaches to the study of optimization of systems that carry out B2C trading. In this regard, the research paper is relevant. The purpose of the paper is to offer recommendations for the method of research for analysis of the effectiveness of delivery processes of goods on the last mile. In the first chapter of this paper, the main features of the organization of distribution within the framework of electronic commerce will be considered. Aspects of organizing the delivery of goods at the city level will be described, the main areas of focus of research will be highlighted. In addition, attention will be paid to those tasks and objects to which the attention of researchers in the framework of the considered area is paid. The second chapter will consider the main tasks in organizing the delivery process around the city from the point of view of methodology. Basic tasks in the area under consideration will be mathematically described and conclusions will be drawn about the development of methodology in the area of certain tasks. This chapter will also identify if there is a research gap in the field of delivery of goods to consumers. The third chapter will describe the process of delivering goods on the last mile in e-commerce. A simulation model of the queuing system will be built according to the described process, based on the simulation, conclusions will be drawn regarding the features of the system's operation and the feasibility of modeling. The novelty of this paper lies in conducting an exploratory analysis of both theoretical and overview studies, as well as of studies focused on the methodology for solving the problems of the research area under consideration. In addition, the originality of this study lies in the analysis of the hypothesis that, at the moment, the literature does not widely present approaches to studying the effectiveness of systems for delivering goods to consumers. Based on the results of the analysis of the hypothesis, an approach to the analysis of the features and efficiency of the system for the delivery of goods to consumers on the last mile is proposed.