Fresh Agricultural Products Online Retailer’s Emergency Logistics Capability Framework During the Pandemic

Abstract

Purpose: During the pandemic, a large number of orders forced online retailers of fresh produce to quickly change their emergency logistics capabilities to meet the needs of ordinary consumers during the pandemic. Our research aims to help online retailers establish an emergency physical distribution framework for fresh produce during disasters to meet consumer needs. Research design and methodology: 160 effective responses were collected from the online response team in Wuhan, China, and exploratory factor analysis was used to determine the emergency logistics capability framework. Twelve experts were invited online to collect their scoring opinions and use the entropy method to determine the importance of emergency logistics capabilities. Results: Our results have identified a total of 17 emergency logistics factors for online retailers, and we found that Transportation route planning and reconstruction capabilities, Emergency plan planning ability, and Supply chain real-time information sharing capability are the most important in the overall framework. Conclusions: This research completely established the physical distribution framework of fresh agricultural products online retailer in emergency situations. It enriches academic resources in the field of emergency distribution and provides a scientific basis for corporate managers to improve their physical distribution capabilities in emergency situations.