Managing the supply chain in the e-business world

Competitiveness and globalisation have forced enterprises to find ways to reduce costs both in monetary and time terms. The forces pressurising companies include fast technological changes, new concepts of competitiveness, productivity and flexibility, globalisation, new governments roles, and the work force dynamics. A new actor appeared on this scenery: the market-space, brought by e-business, during the so-called information revolution. Transactions in virtual markets lowered costs and offered better service, as the information to buy and sell are in the same place: a computer screen. This paper regards the tendencies to improve the WEB market-spaces and their function, with special attention to a well-integrated supply chain system and product distribution optimisation. The intention is to produce a small guide to managers about the WEB, and one of the main problems for market-space companies: the logistic of the distribution process.