Logistics is being redefined by internet shopping. Aivars Lode Avantce
Expectations of online shoppers will shape global shipping, PepsiCo executve tells JaxPort conference
Posted: March 19, 2013 - 6:30pm
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By David Bauerlein
The “real time generation” of consumers who shop online and want their purchases shipped quickly to their homes will shape the global shipment of goods, a PepsiCo executive said Tuesday at conference sponsored by the Jacksonville Port Authority.
About 350 people attended the JaxPort Logistics and Intermodal Conference at Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort. They came from 23 states and Puerto Rico, according to the port authority.
JaxPort stages the conference every other year, featuring panel discussions by industry leaders. The three-day conference also serves as a marketing event for JaxPort to tout Jacksonville as a gateway port and location for distribution centers.
John Philips, senior vice president of customer supply chain and logistics for PepsiCo, said in the keynote speech that Internet-based commerce is a “global megatrend” shaping the retail industry.
“You have to get your arms around the whole consumer technology,” he said.
Businesses that “master the convergence of the physical world and the digital world will become the market leaders,” he said.
He reeled off a slew of statistics about the rising importance of online shopping. To take one common product, he said that by 2015, about 20 percent of diapers will be purchased online.
He said shoppers also are interested in being able to customize their orders, which requires factories that are nimble and operate around the clock, seven days a week to fulfill orders in a timely way.
Even in brick-and-mortar stores, consumers are bringing their smart phones to shop around, and retailers who respond to that will get more sales, he said.
He said other global trends are the increasing flow of people into cities, the aging population, and the rising middle class in regions such as Asia.
The United States and Europe “will continue to chug along,” he said, “but the big growth is going to come from the other countries.”
David Bauerlein: (904) 359-4581
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