On Oct. 4^th, 2016, as part of its Industry Outlook Series, METRANS welcomed Mr. Ben Conwell from Cushman & Wakefield to speak to an audience of around 70 students, faculty, and transportation practitioners about the outlook of E-Commerce industry and the roles played by and impact on supply chain management and transportation.

Starting with a simple yet demonstrative question, “How many of you have shopped online before?” Mr. Conwell showed that e-commerce is nearly universal. He then walked the audience through an overview of e-commerce, supply chain innovations (especially in last mile delivery), comparisons between some of the major companies such as Amazon and Walmart, the promising future of e-commerce, and finally, some tips on how smaller companies can perform better in this competitive market.

Source: PPT - I Want It Now: E-Commerce, Supply Chains and Transportation

The talk was very informative and helped shed light on some opportunities and challenges not only for e-commerce companies, but also for logistics service companies and others that are actively involved in the industry. Many attendees found the event quite enjoyable and informative: Ms. Fran Inman from Majestic Realty Co. said that he loved the event and asked for more details after the event; Ms. Abigail Flores from LA County DPW told METRANS afterwards that “the event was well organized and hosted a great speaker who is a knowledgeable leader in his field.”

A complete version of Mr. Conwell’s speech can be found on YouTube here.

Shichun Hu

Author Shichun Hu is a student assistant at METRANS Transportation Center, specializing in and coordinating the METRANS Mentor Program. She is a 2^nd year graduate student majoring in Industrial and System Engineering in the Viterbi School of Engineering, USC. Her interests are using data and operation research methods to improve urban logistics and the supply chain. She is pursuing analytical internships in these fields.