City selection for fresh produce e-commerce’s market entry strategy: Based on the perspective of urban logistics competitiveness

Abstract

Urban logistics is critical for fresh produce e-commerce (FPE), and the impressive advancement of urban logistics takes a leading role in increasing online grocery player’s competitiveness. This research analyzes the characteristics of logistics of fresh food e-commerce and constructs an evaluation index of city logistics competitiveness (CLC), also known as urban logistics competitiveness (ULC) based on basic requirement scale, efficiency enhancers level and technology and innovation level. Observing thirty-seven cities in China’s Yangtze River Delta, we evaluate and classify their urban logistics competitiveness score through the improved TODIM (an acronym in Portuguese of interactive and multiple attribute decision making) method: entropy weight-TODIM method and K-means cluster analysis using MATLAB software. Through TODIM calculation and clustering evaluation, four groups of cities are extracted and suggestions on new market entry strategiesto the fresh food e-commerce industry are provided.

Keywords

• Urban logistics competitiveness
• Fresh produce e-commerce
• Multi-criteria decision-making method
• K-means cluster analysis