In 2012 several retailers, including Amazon and Walmart, experimented with same-day delivery. Home delivery of pizzas had been a very successful model in the United States and had been copied all over the world. In contrast, home delivery attempts by companies like Kozmo and Urbanfetch had failed and both companies went bankrupt. The goal of this case is to build a framework that helps students identify the factors that influence the success or failure of home delivery models.
After analyzing and discussing the case, students should be able to:
Build a basic framework identifying supply chain drivers that are influenced by a firm's decision to offer same-day home delivery
Understand the tradeoffs that influence the success of a same-day home delivery model
Identify qualitative factors to be considered when deciding between non-U.S. facility locations, including transportation time variability, consumer perceptions, and cultural differences
