فن آوری های جدید لجستیک در بهبود ارزش مشتری در خدمات خرده فروشی

Today's business success to a great extent depends on logistics and supply chain performance. The role of logistics has never been as critical as it is today. This paper identifies a series of market trends and technological advances which are likely to affect Croatian retail logistics over the next 10–15 years. The results of the study conducted on the sample of Croatian retailing managers reveal that Croatian retailers have not yet recognized the importance of new logistics technology and that they do not use them sufficiently. Although retail sector is facing significant pressures to offer high level of service, knowledge and skills of their employees and to reduce cost as well, Croatian retailers do not see the opportunity of Internet based technologies to improve the knowledge of their employees as the most important source of the company. They use some Internet technologies mostly in advertising, the process of ordering and all transactions with suppliers, and the communication with other business entities.

Globalization and changing industry dynamics forced retailing companies to implement new technologies and to update their business strategies in order to improve the companies’ value to the customers. Moreover, savings achieved through the increasing use of technologies are among the most important competitive tools. An excellent measure of the soundness of existing logistics policies or practices is the speed with which they can be adapted to meet changes in the environment. Specifically, as competition has grown rapidly large number of competitive retailing formats has now expanded into many market areas. Retailers must improve both inventory turnover and customer service. They must keep enough products on hand to avoid stockouts or they will lose customers. A major area that retailers are turning to in support of their increased customer service goals, and to track and improve supply chain performance, is technology (Ellram et al., 1999). Much of the technology that retailers are using and proposing to use is information based technology. Therefore, retailers’ competitive advantage can be obtained in the area of background functions or in «the economy's dark continent» (Drucker, 1962) as Drucker described logistics. Kotler (2003) agrees with this statement suggesting that competitive advantage over the competitors could be achieved in managing all materials flow and physical distribution, abetted by information technology in an effective manner. Colla and Dupuis (2002) point out that one of Wal Mart's great strengths is its sophistication in real-time data gathering from its network, which has helped it to develop sophisticated data warehouse tools and computerized data exchanges with suppliers, thus providing impressively accelerated stock turnover. For retailers it is no longer a question of buying from companies or of placing orders with shippers, it is rather a question of managing a process which covers everything from the sources to the delivery to the stores. The main competitive advantage is that the retailer is able to use new information technologies to systematically lower costs, and by extension margin rates and prices. They help them to obtain productivity results greater than those of its competition. The main purpose of this paper is to find the answers on the following questions: 1. to what extent Croatian retailers use new logistics technologies and 2. do Croatian retail companies really consider Internet technologies as an important factor to overall company's performance. The paper presents results of the field research carried out on the sample of 31 retailing managers (out of 377 contacted managers). The research instrument used in the current study was created in order to realize main goals of the study and to test the following hypotheses: H1. The implementation of new logistics technologies will lead to the reduction of procurement as the traditional operational business unit in Croatian retail companies. H2. Croatian retailers have not yet recognized the importance of new logistics technology and do not use them sufficiently. The paper begins with the short theoretical background where relevant work on logistics and its activities, as well as new trends in logistics is briefly discussed. This is followed by a literature review on logistics technologies in Croatian retailing. Then the methodology of the research study, with the data and the questionnaire description is given. Finally, the results of the study are presented and discussed with an emphasis on fourth investigated areas: the legal status and the size of the investigated companies, companies’ business performance indicators, and the impact of new market trends on logistics activities and the frequency of usage of new technologies in logistics.

On today's competitive and global market it is not enough for retailers to offer product at acceptable selling price. They have to offer much more if they want to stay competitive. They have to change their traditional strategy for conducting business and to implement changes which led to much more efficient strategies. In the increasingly competitive, global marketplace firms began to realize that they could leverage marketplace advantage through superior logistics performance (Mangan et al., 2008). As Patterson et al. (2003) point out: “with almost daily technology advancement globally in ever facet of the business, organizations need to synchronize by adopting and implementing new electronic commerce and supply chain technology in order to protect market share, not to mention improve market penetration”. This paper is an attempt to reveal what is the level of new logistics technologies usage in Croatian retailing. Moreover, the present study seeks to shed light on the Croatian retailers’ perception of the importance of new logistics technologies for their business success. The findings suggest that large retail companies mostly implemented new logistics technologies. They use some Internet technologies very often in the following areas: the advertising, the process of ordering and all transactions with suppliers, and the communication with other business entities. They confirm that the implementation of new logistics technologies will lead to the reduction of procurement as the traditional operational business unit in the company and to integrate it as the process in the context of logistics. Without a doubt, logistics and SCM will continue to grow in importance as companies continue to pursue outsourcing, expand their international operations, and do business in a global economic environment (Ballou, 2007). However, overall results of the study give directions to insufficient use of new logistics technologies by Croatian retail companies. In such a way, Hypothesis 2 is accepted. As competition for market share in the retail sector is intense, these findings have important implications for Croatian retail sector because retailers are facing significant pressures to offer high level of service and to reduce cost as well.