E-grocery and last mile logistics: do we need a supply-chain reference model?

E-grocery is a new emerging and challenging business channel for the food & beverage market, enabling the consumers to purchase grocery products online. It combines the criticalities of distribution in urban areas (last mile logistics) with the distribution of fresh and perishable foods. In fact, several e-grocery companies already exist all around the world, but a large number of them have failed because of the high cost and complexity in the fulfillment of online orders and distribution activities, which significantly affect e-grocery profitability. A similar type of business is the Local Food Supply Chain (LFSC). This business concerns the local production and delivery of food to the consumers. It can assist local food producers in delivering goods in a more economically and environmentally efficient way, as well as offering to consumers the possibility of online purchasing, high quality, healthy and green foods and products from local producers. In the literature, several papers analyze e-grocery supply chains, identifying different order fulfillment and delivery options. It emerges as a key issue the importance of designing a profitable e-commerce business that combines a tailored value proposition and operational models. Nevertheless, a framework of urban supply chain combined with a business model has not been proposed yet. Furthermore, while a great attention is paid for studying e-grocery distribution as an online version of supermarket, fresh food and LFSC are somehow less considered. This paper aims to discuss whether a new supply-chain reference model for e-grocery is useful. First, we examine the solutions proposed in the literature, showing their benefits and limits. Second, due to peculiarities of the market under study and the lack of other work similar to the present paper, we propose a reference model dedicated to the e-grocery of LFSC. Our model incorporates innovative distribution and business models based on ICT and mobile applications in order to overcome criticalities related to order placement and home deliveries.