Grocery Supply-Chain Management: MyGROCER innovative business and technology framework

The grocery industry is one of the largest and most important industries in the modern marketplace. Over the past seventy years, supermarkets and grocery stores have evolved into some of the most convenient and diverse businesses in the world. This evolution would not have been possible without effective supply chain management. In reality, nowadays supply chains -especially these of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG)conceal numerous inefficiencies existing in the collaboration with trading partners that heavily affect the whole replenishment process. These inefficiencies imply at the same time that there is significant room for further improvements. Therefore, there are opportunities that should be leveraged stemming from real business needs. MyGROCER (Mobile shopping of electronically referenced grocery products) conception derived from the aforementioned needs and provides an effective solution to the inefficiencies of the retail grocery supply chain. The MyGROCER business and technology framework exploits the opportunities that emerging telecommunication and mobile commerce technologies (e.g. WAP, WML, GPRS, UMTS) and automatic product identification technologies (RF-Id) offer, to enable an efficient home replenishment schema, enhance the quality of service offered by retailers and add value to the consumer. This paper discusses the rationale behind this concept, identifies a number of pertinent research themes, and concludes with a critical appraisal of its market potential.