Supply Chain Management: An International Journal

E-business strategy development: an FMCG sector case study

M. Webster R. Beach I. Fouweather
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M. Webster R. Beach I. Fouweather, (2006),"E-business strategy development: an FMCG sector case study", Supply Chain
Management: An International Journal, Vol. 11 Iss 4 pp. 353 - 362
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 Case study

E-business strategy development: an FMCG

sector case study
M. Webster, R. Beach and I. Fouweather
University of Bradford School of Management, Bradford, UK

Abstract
Purpose – This paper sets out to discuss the development of an e-business strategy by a UK soft drinks company. It is based within the Fast Moving
Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector (also known as Consumer Packaged Goods), which is characterised by powerful retailers, tier-1 suppliers of industrial
end-products and ingredient/raw material producers further upstream. The paper aims to examine the tensions created at tier-1 level relating to the
adoption of e-business solutions for B2B activities.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on the literature to describe the technological options for achieving e-commerce, focusing
particularly on Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and internet-mediated e-commerce. It then explores the current uptake of e-commerce, and the drivers
and barriers that relate to its adoption. The theoretical issues identified are explored empirically using data gathered from a case study of Princes Soft
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Drinks. A detailed survey of organisations within its supply base was conducted in order to inform the development of its future e-business strategy.
Findings – The results of the survey indicate a lack of enthusiasm among Princes’ supply chain members for the adoption of e-commerce generally and
for internet-mediated e-commerce solutions in particular.
Research limitations/implications – The empirical survey is limited to the UK soft drinks sector and allows for the development of descriptive
findings. These findings, discussed within the theoretical context of the paper, have potentially wider implications for the FMCG sector as a whole.
Practical implications – The work has significant implications for the development of Princes’ e-business strategy, and – by extrapolation – for other
companies operating in similar commercial environments.
Originality/value – The paper reports original empirical research in the commercially important FMCG sector. Its value stems in part from the
examination of the supply chain tensions created at tier-1 – between powerful e-committed retailers and e-reluctant industrial suppliers.

Keywords Electronic commerce, Internet, Fast moving consumer goods

Paper type Case study

Introduction
Electronic commerce (e-commerce) refers to the conducting
of business transactions over electronic/computer networks,
including the internet, (Barnes and Hunt, 2001) and
therefore encompasses processes related to the buying,
selling and trading of products, services and information,
(Gunasekaran et al., 2002). There has been considerable
publicity given to the use of e-commerce in business-to-
consumer (B2C) markets, where transactions involving such
activities as ordering goods, personal banking and share
trading are becoming increasingly commonplace. However,
the use of e-commerce for business-to-business (B2B)
transactions has been widely identified as an area with
significant potential for cost saving and future revenue
generation (Barnes and Hunt, 2001). For businesses, B2B
can mean electronic interaction with members of the supply
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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Supply Chain Management: An International Journal
11/4 (2006) 353– 362
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 1359-8546]
[DOI 10.1108/13598540610671806]
base, i.e. for inbound procurement, and with customers for
transactions relating to their procurement activity.
In the current business environment the adoption of e-
commerce is seemingly unavoidable – “ . . . e-commerce is no
longer an alternative, but an imperative. [However] many
companies are struggling with the most basic problem: what is
the best approach for establishing and doing business in the
digital economy?” (Lee, 2001, p. 349). This suggests that, in
moving into an e-commerce business environment – over
which there is little choice – there is a need to develop an e-
business strategy that will inform and direct future operations.
Lee goes on to argue that in addressing this problem, there is
no simple prescription or established business model for
companies or industries and that developing an e-capability
often entails making a paradigm shift, radically altering
traditional approaches to doing business (Lee, 2001). It
follows that the development of an e-business strategy is
uniquely challenging and essential. Such a strategy should
concern not only the appropriate technology choices of tools
and solutions, but also the coherence and integration of these
choices with other company processes (Cagliano et al., 2003)
and with their wider strategy for supply chain management
(Smart and Harrison, 2002). The empirical component of
this paper – presented after theoretical background - explores
the situation faced by Princes, a tier-1 supplier in the UK soft
drinks industry. It considers the difficulties faced by first tier

353
 E-business strategy development: an FMCG sector case study
M. Webster, R. Beach and I. Fouweather
organisations in the supply chains for FMCG (also known as
Consumer Packaged Goods Cox, 2003/2004), and the
implications of these for the development of e-business
strategy.
Within the broad definition of e-commerce, it is clear that
there are alternative technological routes by which e-
commerce can be achieved – the internet being only one
possibility. Moreover, both within the literature and in
practice, there is confusion over the terminology used in
this area, with some authors using the term “e-commerce”
synonymously with that of “e-commerce mediated via the
internet”, or “I-commerce” (e.g. Manecke and Schoensleben,
2004, Yen and Ng, 2003). The increasing accessibility of the
internet and the wide availability of standard browsers is
encouraging the expansion of e-commerce via the internet
(Gunasekaran et al., 2002). However, technology options for
conducting commerce electronically still include telephone,
facsimile, electronic mail (email), Electronic Data
Interchange (EDI) together with the internet. Structuring
their discussion of the impact of e-commerce on operations,
Gunasekaran et al. (2002) distinguish between the principal
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contemporary options – email, EDI and the internet. This
distinction mirrors the structure of the empirical research
undertaken in support of this paper. The three options are
discussed below.
Email was one of the first applications to run on the internet
and involves the direct transmission of text messages between
2 users. Using email provides the simplest form of e-
commerce. It replaces paper, fax and telephone
communication between members of a supply system
(Beynon-Davies, 2004). It is quick and uncomplicated, but
lacks the sophistication provided by EDI and internet-
mediated e-commerce solutions.
Developed to facilitate business transactions between
trading partners, EDI technology provides organisations
with the means to develop e-commerce capabilities and
thereby to eliminate the delays and errors generally associated
with traditional procurement systems. It provides a (limited)
collection of standard message formats that businesses may
use to exchange data including, for example, orders, delivery
notes and invoices (Beynon-Davies, 2004). It has been in
existence for over 20 years and has been championed mostly
by large manufacturing and retail companies who use it to link
suppliers into their business processes. On the inbound
supply-side of an organisation’s operations, improved record
accuracy, lower data entry costs, reduced inventory holdings
and improved inventory turn ratios are cited as benefits;
whilst on the outbound demand-side improved
responsiveness to orders and enquiries and increased
business opportunities are cited (Davis and O’Sullivan,
1998).
Unfortunately, the technological solutions developed for
EDI are generally customer led and frequently proprietary in
nature. Standardisation of approaches is restricted (Beynon-
Davies, 2004) and the cost of participation can be high.
Consequently, EDI technology-enabled e-commerce is
typically characterised by closed groups of users whose
transaction volumes are high, as it is these organisations that
are most likely to benefit from the expected improvements in
operational efficiency. The costs of switching between EDI
systems are also high (Hawkins and Prencipe, 2000), and this
limits the ability of group members to go elsewhere. As a
consequence, e-commerce facilitated by EDI has tended to be
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Supply Chain Management: An International Journal
Volume 11 · Number 4 · 2006 · 353 –362
limited to larger organisations with stable supply chain
structures. It is less popular with smaller organisations or
those in non-stable supply networks where the costs of
participation are prohibitive.
Increasingly, the internet is being promoted as a means to
facilitate collaboration between members of supply chains, to
result in cost savings, more efficient operations, improved
customer service and potential for innovation and new
business opportunities (e.g. Wagner et al., 2003, Hawkins and
Prencipe, 2000, Baldwin et al., 2001, Timmers, 2000).
Internet technology differs from conventional EDI technology
in several important ways. It is relatively inexpensive. It is
based on open standards and therefore supports numerous
applications, which can process small transaction volumes
cost effectively and can be configured to accommodate
changes in users with ease (Hawkins and Prencipe, 2000). It
is also a public network that is globally available, providing
access to customers and suppliers worldwide. Moreover,
applications are not limited to inter-firm transactions.
Internet and Web technology can be used within the
organisation to manage workflow, co-ordinate activities and
improve process efficiency through the sharing of information
(Rowlatt, 2001, Gunasekaran et al., 2002). Intranets, the term
used to describe these private communication networks,
secured behind firewalls (Beynon-Davies, 2004) are typically
based on groupware[1] applications (Gunasekaran et al.,
2002). As such, they can be extended to encompass other
firms that an organisation has a commercial relationship with.
The resulting Extranet configurations can be used to facilitate
closer relationships with customers and suppliers, to improve
the co-ordination of (supply chain) activities, and to improve
communications between the functions and individuals of an
organisation (Davis and O’Sullivan, 1998). The benefits cited
for internet-mediated e-commerce solutions over proprietary
EDI solutions are summarised as speed, consistency,
immediate access, lowered transaction costs, flexibility and
extensibility – i.e. the potential to access further applications
via a web-server – (Manecke and Schoensleben, 2004).
Conversely, internet-mediated solutions are said not to match
the robustness and capacity of EDI for carrying out B2B e-
commerce (Lee, 2001).
Despite the obvious benefits offered by internet-mediated
e-commerce there is little indication that its functionality is
being widely harnessed in practice (Hawkins and Prencipe,
2000, Wagner et al., 2003). Evidence suggests that smaller
businesses, in particular, are failing to appreciate its potential
benefits (Williams, 2001) and that the majority of e-commerce
transactions continue to be associated with conventional EDI
technologies and larger organisations (Hawkins and Prencipe,
2000). The following section draws on a range of published
literature to develop a macro view of the causes of this and of
the scale of the problem.
The adoption of e-commerce solutions in supply
chains
In order to link with the subsequent empirical work within the
paper, this section is structured around the perspective of a
tier-1 FMCG organisation, interacting demand-side with its
retail customers and supply-side with its ingredient and raw
material suppliers. However, the data, upon which it draws, is
not specific to the FMCG sector.
 E-business strategy development: an FMCG sector case study
M. Webster, R. Beach and I. Fouweather
For some time, EDI has been the technological choice of
large manufacturing and retail companies for managing
transactions within their supply chains. (e.g. Beynon-Davies,
2004, McIvor and Humphreys, 2004). For these major
commercial and industrial players, e-commerce has become
their preferred way of operating and, provided their suppliers
buy-in to the technology, represents an effective and efficient
means of conducting e-commerce. Therefore, for these
organisations, there is little need to consider the
opportunities offered by the internet. Additionally, it has
been said that the internet has provided no new sales
opportunities for FMCG retailers, and that they therefore
have little incentive to develop online interaction (Brown,
2000). Although this has been identified specifically at the
demand-side of retailers, it may be expected that they would
have an equivalent reluctance to develop internet-mediated e-
commerce solutions on their supply-side. Thus, there may be
little incentive to move away from the traditional EDI
interaction with their tier-1 suppliers.
On the supply-side, there is far less consensus and
standardisation of approach. Individual companies may
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supply many customers – some using EDI, others using
more conventional business approaches. In this situation the
arguments for considering the relatively flexible and accessible
internet-mediated e-commerce appear compelling. However,
evidence suggests that industry is not rushing to adopt e-
business and that attitudes are predominantly reactive
(Wagner et al., 2003). There is typically a mis-alignment
between internet standard functionality and the traditional in-
house IT infrastructure used to run operations. This creates a
reluctance to change which, together with the non-strategic
perspective adopted by industry, means that opportunities to
re-shape business around I-commerce are being missed
(Wagner et al., 2003). The scale of the problem has been
highlighted in a number of surveys, which are summarised in
Table I.
Empirical data on the micro reasons manufacturers are
apparently so reluctant to adopt e-commerce is scant and
typically limited to the identification of generalisable factors
Table I Summary of surveys undertaken into the adoption of e-commerce
Source
e-commerce enquiry conducted by the UK Office for National
Statistics (Williams, 2001)
Regional surveys within the UK (Scotland – Wagner et al., 2003;
and Wales – Quayle, 2002)
European-wide study (Cagliano et al., 2003)
Multiple sector survey of 120 international companies
(Dutta and Biren, 2001)
International study (Baldwin et al., 2001)
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drawn from multiple sector studies. Table II draws on
published literature to develop a view of the factors that are
thought to be influencing decisions to develop e-commerce
capabilities using internet technology. These are classified as
either drivers or barriers. The drivers for adoption have been
categorised as either reactive or proactive, and either strategic
or tactical (Hawkins and Prencipe, 2000).
Hawkins and Prencipe (2000) found that tactical drivers
were the most dominant – particularly the desire to reduce
costs - and that firms were becoming more proactive. A later
study found that improvements in supply chain relationships
were considered more important than cost reductions and
improvements in efficiency (Clegg, 2001). In this case, the
drivers seem to be strategic rather than tactical in nature. It
has also been noted that the approach most frequently
adopted, particularly amongst organisations already
conducting business through conventional channels, is
exploratory and experimental (Williams et al., 2001,
Malone, 2001). This suggests that a cautious and possibly
opportunistic view of the technology prevails and that an
important factor influencing the extent and effectiveness with
which e-commerce is adopted may be an organisation’s
perception of the risks and benefits associated with the
technology.
The preceding sections of the paper have introduced the
principal options for developing a B2B e-commerce
capability, and have explored the current status of e-
commerce implementation. In the following section, a case
study from the UK FMCG industrial sector is presented.
Analysis of the case supports much of the earlier discussion
and provides empirical evidence of the status of the adoption
of B2B e-commerce in the supply base of Princes Soft Drinks,
UK.
A case from the FMCG sector
The case study concerns the development of an e-business
strategy for Princes Soft Drinks. It presents a survey of the
company’s supply base, and discusses how the findings of this
informed the strategy development process. By contrast to the
Findings
70% of smaller businesses in the manufacturing sector were using computer
technology
Less than 50% had internet access in the food and clothing sector
66% of manufacturers had no immediate plan to develop e-commerce for
selling or buying products
Reluctance on the part of SMEs to trade electronically and to use the internet to
achieve this
50% of those using e-commerce were doing so only because of pressure from
their major customers (Quayle, 2002)
Use of internet-mediated e-commerce within manufacturing supply chains
described as “low”
Only 25% of companies recognised the strategic importance of internet
technology and were using it to develop new business models by re-engineering
their supply chains and to explore new ways of adding value
More advanced use of the internet in technologically advanced countries such
as UK, France, Germany, USA than those that lack technological infrastructure,
e.g. Slovenia
 E-business strategy development: an FMCG sector case study
M. Webster, R. Beach and I. Fouweather
Table II Drivers and barriers to the adoption of e-commerce
Drivers (reactive – R, proactive – P, strategic – S, tactical – T)
Pressure from others in the supply chain (R)
Internal pressure to maintain an e-commerce presence (R)
Re-structuring of the supply chain (P,S)
Exploration of new business models – e.g. the role of
intermediaries and distributors (P,S)
Cost reduction – e.g. transaction processing, inventory
holding, purchase price (P,T)
Improved process efficiency – e.g. reduced lead times,
improved procurement and production practices and logistics (P,T)
Business process integration – integration of purchasing and
sales with other business functions (P,T)
Improvements in supply chain relationships (P,S)
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multiple sector surveys considered in table I, the survey
conducted as part of this study is focussed within the UK soft
drinks supply chain. As such, whilst adding to the findings of
previous studies, it also elaborates on them by providing a
more detailed company perspective of the issues.
Practical context: the FMCG sector
Within the FMCG supply chain a distinction is made between
consumers – the end users of a product, and customers –
retailers through which products are sold to consumers (Cox,
2003/2004). Typically, manufacturers of FMCG products
must use retailers to access their consumers and as a
consequence the balance of power in the tier-1 distribution
channel is on the side of a small number of extremely
powerful, competing names, such as Wal-Mart, Marks and
Spencers, Sainsbury, Tesco, etc. These organisations, by
virtue of their position in the supply chain, are the change
agents in the FMCG sector, often instigating moves which
have profound implications for tier-1 suppliers, e.g. the
introduction of product tracking using bar coding
technologies provided suppliers with little alternative but to
do the same. A more recent example is the demands Wal-
Mart have made on their top 100 suppliers to use RFID
(radio frequency identification) tagging (Lamb, 2003). If the
expected savings materialise as expected, other retailers will
follow and tier-1 suppliers will have to respond. These
initiatives reflect a general shift from a focus on volume and
internal efficiency to an external one on value and consumers
(O’Keeffe, 2001). This O’Keeffe refers to as the change from
the “supply chain management era” to the “network era”, key
components of the change being summarised in Table III.
However, this by no means describes the sector as a whole.
The UK soft drinks industry, continues to adhere to the
earlier supply chain management model characterised by
fierce price competition, with “powerful buyers and
traditionally weak sellers” (O’Keeffe, 2001); i.e. an
environment in which cost reduction is a management
mantra.
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Supply Chain Management: An International Journal
Volume 11 · Number 4 · 2006 · 353 –362
Barriers
Costs of acquiring and maintaining an e-commerce capability (Quayle, 2002,
Williams, 2001, Clegg, 2001)
Concerns about security and control (Quayle, 2002, Williams, 2001,
Davila et al., 2003)
Lack of knowledge of the internet and e-commerce (Williams, 2001,
Wagner et al., 2003)
Lack of senior management understanding, attitude and vision (Clegg, 2001)
Lack of skills/technology/training in-house (Clegg, 2001, Wagner et al., 2003)
Resistance from employees – based on fear, inertia, lack of faith (Quayle, 2002)
Poor availability of external skills (Clegg, 2001)
Resistance from suppliers – unwilling to drop proprietary systems and a lack of
equipment and time (Quayle, 2002)
System compatibility (Clegg, 2001, Davila et al., 2003)
Incoherence and perceived lack of security and flexibility – internet-specific
(Quayle, 2002)
Table III Key components of alternative business eras in retail supply
Supply chain management era Network era
The age of reason: efficiency The age of possibility: opportunity
Taking costs out Putting value in
Introverted Customer-focused
Chain starts at the DC
(distribution centre) Chain starts with the consumer
Logistics productivity Marketing productivity
Physical distribution Information management
Economies of scale Network economics
Negative feedback Positive feedback
Focus on volume Focus on value
Source: O’Keeffe, 2001
Tier-1 companies in the FMCG supply chain typically
produce finished products for eventual sale to consumers via
retailers and as such form the interface between a small
number of powerful retail customers and a plethora of smaller
industrial suppliers of both specialised and commodity
products. Thus tier-1 organisations wishing to develop an e-
business strategy can find themselves in the unenviable
position of being squeezed between e-committed retailers on
the outbound side and e-reluctant suppliers on the inbound
side, a situation with the potential to create considerable
tension for the parties concerned.
Princes soft drinks
The Princes Food Group is wholly owned by the Mitsubishi
Corporation and is the largest UK supplier of own-label
processed grocery products. The Soft Drinks division within
the group is the major supplier of fruit juices, carbonated,
ready-to-drink and dilute-to-taste soft drinks in the UK. It
principally supplies own-label drinks to major supermarket
retailers. It is a market where there has been much negative
 E-business strategy development: an FMCG sector case study
M. Webster, R. Beach and I. Fouweather
pressure on prices to the extent that suppliers have been
forced to cut costs, improve process efficiency and push price
reductions back up the supply chain to lower tier suppliers.
Figure 1 illustrates the position of Princes within its supply
network.
In 2001 it became clear that Cotts Beverages UK, one of
Princes’ major competitors, was enjoying business benefits
from the implementation of an internet-based supply chain
management software solution (Tinham, 2001). Facing
intense pressure in the FMCG marketplace, the report that
Cotts were enjoying significant benefits from internet-based
fulfilment generated considerable interest within Princes. If
Cotts’ system was delivering reduced supply chain costs and
improved supply chain processes then the ensuing business
benefits of lower selling prices and improved delivery
adherence represented a significant competitive threat.
Since the early 1990s Princes had been communicating
electronically downstream with the major supermarket
retailers using EDI. Different technological approaches were
used for different customers meaning that Princes has had to
invest in alternative solutions in order to trade downstream.
The use of EDI enabled transactional data to be imported
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into and exported out of SAP - Princes’ Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) system - quickly and accurately. The use of
EDI, together with the integration of transactional data into
Princes’ SAP system, had increased the effectiveness of the
company’s outbound, demand-side supply chain. During this
period however, communication with suppliers had remained
largely unchanged, relying on a combination of telephone, fax
and the traditional postal service. During the latter part of the
1990s, Princes had explored the possibility of adopting EDI
links with suppliers, but high costs and technological issues
had prevented its adoption. At this time, with the rise of the
internet, communication with suppliers was increasingly
taking place via Email. Whilst this often proved more
effective than telephone communication, it was generally
unable to handle the transactional data that was required and
this was frequently sent via fax or post. The company began
to pilot an application called “Business Connector” which
used the internet to transmit transactional data between
Figure 1 The Princes soft drinks supply network
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Supply Chain Management: An International Journal
Volume 11 · Number 4 · 2006 · 353 –362
organisations that operated a SAP ERP system. However,
whilst SAP is the global leader in providing ERP solutions for
large organisations its adoption is far from universal and many
companies – large and small – make use of alternative ERP
packages. Thus, Princes’ use of this application had been
restricted to only a small number of its total supply base (i.e.
to those that used SAP).
The company was aware of many national and
multinational manufacturers that were implementing
internet-based systems to improve the quality and the value
of the information that they exchanged with their business
partners, the objectives of such collaborative initiatives being
to improve the overall performance of the supply chain
(Fernie et al., 2000). Faced with this knowledge, the need to
review supply-side (inbound) transactional mechanisms and
the potential threat posed by Cotts, Princes felt compelled to
explore the opportunities that the new and emerging B2B
solutions could create within a FMCG supply chain. In
particular, they were interested in establishing the positions
and views of the organisations within their supply base on the
adoption of possible B2B solutions and what the current and
anticipated impact of the internet on B2B communication
and business transactions might be. The results of the
investigation were to inform the development of a B2B e-
commerce strategy that would take the company forward into
the twenty-first century.
As a tier-1 business within an aggressive market, Princes
was in a very challenging position, squeezed between e-
committed customers on its demand-side and potentially e-
reluctant suppliers on its supply-side. In order to develop and
implement future strategic direction for the use of e-
commerce in all its B2B interaction, there was an urgent
need to investigate the existing position of its supply-side
partners, and to determine the prevailing degree of
enthusiasm for e-commerce.
Study design issues
Prior to undertaking this research, Princes’ knowledge of its
suppliers’ views on e-commerce was largely anecdotal. The
development of future strategy without formal knowledge or
 E-business strategy development: an FMCG sector case study
M. Webster, R. Beach and I. Fouweather
understanding in this area would have been unwise. There
was therefore a critical need to carry out an exploratory study
that would yield clear findings for the particular case of this
supply chain. In the sense that it should allow the company to
focus on understanding the dynamics present within a single
setting (Eisenhardt, 1989) and to develop an enhanced
understanding of real world events (McCutcheon and
Meredith, 1993), the study needed to be case-based. Within
the development of the case study however, it was considered
essential to gather the views of as many members of the
supply network as possible. Detailed dyadic data relating to a
single supplier relationship with Princes, whilst interesting,
would be inadequate for the purposes of this work; it would
not truly reflect the views of all supplying organisations, nor
would it necessarily gather the multi-disciplined perspective
necessary to inform the development of an e-business
strategy. Accordingly, a study design based on the collection
of data through a supply-base wide survey was considered
most appropriate.
Survey research, i.e. the statistical analysis of data gathered
by large-scale data collection techniques such as postal
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questionnaires (Barnes, 2001), is the most popular approach
used in OM research, representing approximately 60 per cent
of the published research in this field (Forza, 2002). A major
advantage of this approach is that the techniques used are
recognised and largely approved of by the research
community. Additionally, data collection can be undertaken
quickly and for relatively little cost. The means by which the
questionnaire is administered can have a significant influence
on response rates and hence the value of the results obtained.
In this case, care needed to be taken in the design of the
questionnaire and also its method of implementation to
ensure that as comprehensive picture as possible from the
supply chain could be built up.
Study methodology and limitations
Princes’ procurement strategy had been to work in
partnership with a small number of suppliers who
themselves were major players within their particular
sectors, and to develop strong relationships with them. As a
consequence of this consolidation strategy, Princes’ supply
base consisted of approximately 100 suppliers. Of these, 61
were selected to take part in the survey. The selection criteria
applied was that the volume of business from each should
exceed 1 per cent of Princes’ annual purchases. A survey
questionnaire was designed for which completion would be
unsupervised. It was structured around the following key
themes and topics:
.
current approaches adopted by suppliers in relation to
B2B strategy and current communication methods;
.
suppliers’ views of the specific electronic communication
channels, i.e. EDI, Email and internet/websites; and
.
a section on organisational details.
The majority of the questions were of the “closed” type as
these were felt to be most suitable for the easy unsupervised
completion of the questionnaire, but where it was thought
that qualitative data might improve the understanding of the
issues, “open” questions were also included.
Given the relatively small number of responses possible it
was considered important that a high response rate was
achieved. To this end, the 61 supplier companies were
contacted prior to dispatch of the questionnaires to identify
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Supply Chain Management: An International Journal
Volume 11 · Number 4 · 2006 · 353 –362
the appropriate respondent by name, to encourage their co-
operation and to ask if they would participate in the study. 54
(88 per cent) responded positively and were sent the
questionnaire. Of these, 39 completed questionnaires (72
per cent of the 54) were received in time for the subsequent
analysis. Whilst this response does not cover the entire
Princes’ supply base, it is estimated that it represents over 85
per cent of all annual procurement transactions measured by
value and volume. Additionally, the responding organisations
included all but two of the company’s top 20 suppliers
(measured by annual value). The constitution of the
respondents means that the findings of the research are
likely to reflect the views of those suppliers with a high level of
commitment to Princes and possibly to those that have a
positive view of e-Business. A research methodology
incorporating interviews with the collaborating suppliers
would have facilitated a higher level of analysis that would
undoubtedly have led to greater depth of understanding.
However, the primary purpose of the study was for the rapid
collection of data that would inform the development of
strategy. The findings are largely descriptive.
Study findings
Of the respondents, 51 per cent indicated that their
organisations had formulated a B2B strategy. Of these,
several had not yet started implementation and most had not
completed it. Of the strategy-formulators, 33 per cent
identified the use of EDI as part of the strategy, and 28 per
cent mentioned the use of their SAP ERP systems within it.
Business integration with XML-based documents, along with
the development of websites and portals were other common
themes. Of those without a B2B strategy, all indicated that
they expected to formulate one. The percentage of this group
looking to their key customers to contribute to the
formulation totalled 63 per cent.
All survey respondents currently used at least two methods
of communication with their business partners, and the
majority used at least four methods. The most popular
methods of communication were email, fax, and phone, used
by 92 per cent, 92 per cent and 90 per cent of respondents
respectively. By contrast, use of the internet (excluding email)
had only a 13 per cent adoption rate. Whilst the traditional
postal service was no longer used by approximately 40 per
cent of the sample, its use remained far more widespread than
non-Email communication via the internet.
In line with the literature-based discussion earlier in the
paper, respondents’ views of the 3 options were sought: EDI,
email and the internet/websites.
The adoption of email as a channel for B2B communication
has been rapid and far-reaching and has been described as the
primary technical focus for organisations involved in
developing an e-commerce capability (Clegg, 2001). Of the
survey respondents, 95 per cent used email and many saw it
as equally essential to business as the telephone or computer.
It was used for both demand-side and supply-side
transactions. Transactional security and difficulties of back-
office integration were considered important issues, but the
speed, ease of use and low cost of email meant that it
remained the preferred medium of many organisations and for
many transaction types. It is seen as less useful for payment
and invoicing transactions than for transactions such as
notification of order acceptance, dispatch confirmation,
forecasting, ordering and acknowledging receipt. Most users
 E-business strategy development: an FMCG sector case study
M. Webster, R. Beach and I. Fouweather
process email messages by printing or downloading to
spreadsheet software, although 15 per cent of respondents
are able to integrate some of the messages directly to internal
business systems. The disadvantages cited for email included
the high volumes of email communication (including junk
mail), inefficient processing methods and lack of security. The
percentage of respondents who expect the importance of
email as a B2B communication channel to increase numbered
97 per cent.
Of the respondents, 59 per cent were using, or had used,
EDI. Of these, 70 per cent had adopted it because it was a
requirement from their customers. There was no indication of
the importance of this channel for individual businesses
relative to other channels, but intuitively this adoption rate
seems high. This may be explained by the relatively high
adoption rate in the FMCG sector as a whole, where – as
discussed earlier – tier-1 suppliers are frequently required to
use it by the major retailers and distributors who appear to
have the power to force its adoption (Hill and Scudder,
2002). A number of Princes’ suppliers – described as “dual
suppliers” in Figure 1 – are themselves tier-1 suppliers to
retailers and would therefore already be using EDI (e.g. the
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sugar suppliers). Others supply to customers in the chemical
industry where use of EDI is relatively high. Additionally it
may have been influenced by the fact that the average
turnover of the responding companies was £372m, suggesting
that small organisations were not equally represented in the
sample. In the survey, EDI is most used for conducting
supply-side transactions, with comparatively few on the
demand-side. Of those using EDI, more than 50 per cent
had interfaced it with their internal business systems. Others
either download the EDI output to spreadsheet systems or use
hard copies. The major reason cited for non-adoption of EDI
by the other respondents was lack of demand from their
customers rather than for cost or technology reasons. There
appears to be a possible link between the adoption of EDI and
company turnover – with adopters tending to have higher
turnover than non-adopters. Of all respondents, 59 per cent
believe that they will be using EDI for business transactions in
the future. Only 35 per cent of respondents felt that the
importance of EDI would increase as a channel for B2B
communication. Overall, this suggests that the scope for
future EDI adoption is limited, with those perhaps that have
already invested in the technology continuing to derive benefit
from it. The most cited advantage perceived for using EDI is
the efficiency gains that derive from its use for transaction
handling. Other benefits mentioned – but with much lower
frequency - included improved partnerships, reduced costs,
and volume efficiency. Evidence that supports an observation
made by Hill and Scudder (2002) following their survey of the
use of EDI in the American food industry as a vehicle for
improving supplier coordination that companies “may see
EDI as a tool for improving efficiencies rather than a tool for
developing supply chain management” (ibid, p. 383). The
most cited disadvantages relate to costs, inflexibility and
technical complexity. Others included general poor adoption
rates, the need for dedicated one-to-one links, the danger of
obsolete technology, security and the multiplicity of
standards.
Although 67 per cent of respondents claimed to use the
internet (excluding its use for email) to communicate with
partners, only 13 per cent were regularly using internet
platforms for business communication. Of the adopters,
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Supply Chain Management: An International Journal
Volume 11 · Number 4 · 2006 · 353 –362
private exchanges were the predominant platform used,
although this may be because many of Princes’ suppliers are
already hooked into an exchange that has been set up by one
of their competitors. General websites are the second most
used platform. A wide range of business processes were being
executed through the internet, including both demand-side
and supply-side transactions. Examples included ordering,
order acceptance, dispatch notification, and delivery receipt.
Less common uses are for invoicing, forecasting, and
payment. Unlike EDI, the majority of messages transmitted
through the internet were processed manually and were not
interfaced directly into internal business systems. The most
commonly cited reason for the lack of adoption of internet
B2B communication was that this did not represent a business
priority. Other reasons included the view that the technology
was still too immature to be of significant benefit, and that
customers did not want to use it. However, all respondents
expect its use to increase in the future. As shown in Figure 2,
perceived benefits of using the internet to communicate
included lower costs, ease of use, high availability of
information, flexibility and speed. These benefits were
expected to contribute to business benefits such as
improved customer service, forecasting and business
integration, increased processing and labour efficiency,
stronger business partnerships, and reduced processing
errors, transaction costs and inventory holdings.
As indicated in Figure 3, perceived disadvantages included
security issues, a lack of universal standards, insufficient
technical knowledge, loss of personal interaction, and the
inefficiency of the internet. Respondents identified
technological needs in order to implement internet
communication including requirements for an XML
infrastructure, for software middleware[2] and for
integrative hardware.
Study summary
As summarised below, the study’s findings indicated that the
development of a B2B procurement strategy needed to take
account of three key factors:
Technical issues
Technical barriers to the implementation of generic B2B
software solutions were found to be:
.
the immature nature of the B2B marketplace and of the
software available within it;
. the lack of universal standards for e-Business middleware
that can integrate internal business processes with e-
Business messages and transactions; and
.
a lack of evidence of the ability of B2B software to
synchronise supply chains, to improve collaboration or to
deliver sufficient return on investment (Fontanella, 2001).
Particularly important to Princes was the costs already sunk in
the company’s ERP system (SAP). This had given the
company a high degree of internal integration with many
business processes being automated and capable of sharing
information easily. Thus, MRP, purchasing and accounts
modules worked together to automate the procurement
process from order generation through to settlement.
Documentation was also generated automatically and could
be channelled via a variety of media; currently the preferred
channel was automated fax. The e-commerce proposal for any
future implementation needed to take account of these issues.
 E-business strategy development: an FMCG sector case study
M. Webster, R. Beach and I. Fouweather
Figure 2 Perceived advantages of internet communication
Downloaded by VIT University At 02:56 19 March 2016 (PT)
Figure 3 Perceived disadvantages of internet communication
Customer/commercial issues
Competition within the grocery retail industry continues to be
intense and retail customers continue to exert pressure on
their tier-1 suppliers. Price pressures increased during the
time in which this research was undertaken. In such a
business climate, the justification for capital investment can
be problematic. Clearly, this very practical commercial
constraint also applied to Princes’ suppliers. Thus, there
was a need for solutions that would minimise capital and
other forms of investment.
Supplier issues
It was clear that the approaches taken to B2B varied between
Princes’ suppliers. The technical sophistication of their
approaches to internal business processes also varied from
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Supply Chain Management: An International Journal
Volume 11 · Number 4 · 2006 · 353 –362
leading edge ERP systems to those using stand alone PCs. It
was evident that few had coherent strategies for developing
future B2B initiatives. Thus, any solution reached by Princes
had to be capable of operating over a variety of channels and
communicating in a variety of formats.
Furthermore, in order to achieve full integration of the
supply chain, information needs to flow seamlessly up and
down the chain in the same way that using internal business
systems enables the exchange of data within an individual
organisation. Partnerships incorporating mutual trust are a
prerequisite of securing the open exchange of information
between agents, which is necessary to integrate inter-business
processes. Cultural change is necessary to develop such
partnerships, which must be based on trust, collaboration and
 E-business strategy development: an FMCG sector case study
M. Webster, R. Beach and I. Fouweather
a unified vision of the supply system. For many of Princes’
suppliers, the volume of trade does not justify the financial
and resource-based investment needed to develop this level of
collaboration and for others, the nature of the trading
relationship precludes its achievement. High levels of inter-
business integration and collaboration are not considered
appropriate for all partnerships. Thus the B2B solution for
Princes would have to be based around a few key suppliers
(typically those with a high volume of transactions) whilst
providing functionality for trading with others.
Discussion and conclusions
The constitution of the respondents to the Princes survey
means that the findings of the research are likely to reflect the
views of those suppliers with a high level of commitment to
Princes and possibly to those that have a positive view of e-
commerce. Given this, the findings are somewhat depressing.
The lack of enthusiasm for e-commerce in general and for
internet-mediated solutions in particular, supports the
evidence summarised earlier in the paper that industry is
not yet ready for full scale adoption of internet-mediated B2B
Downloaded by VIT University At 02:56 19 March 2016 (PT)
e-commerce. However, although it has shown the use of
internet-enabled transactions to be limited, a notable statistic
is the number of respondents that use email to communicate
within the supply chain and who see it as growing in
importance. Perhaps, where the benefits are clear and the
costs and risks acceptable, companies are willing to adopt new
technology, to identify its limitations and to exploit its
potential. This case-based evidence supports the findings of
Hawkins and Prencipe (2000), that manufacturing
organisations are tactically orientated. Equally clear is the
fact that they are predominantly reactive rather than proactive
in their approach.
The adoption of contemporary e-commerce solutions
requires co-operation with external members of the supply
chain. Considering the particular position of tier-1 suppliers
in FMCG chains where the nature of relationships has
traditionally been transactional and adversarial, it is clear that
the development of an e-commerce strategy is extremely
problematic. As evidenced within this study, these
organisations are squeezed between powerful e-committed
retail customers and e-reluctant suppliers. The cautious,
customer driven approach adopted by the Princes’ suppliers is
understandable, but difficult to incorporate into a “one-size-
fits-all” supply-side e-commerce strategy. For Princes, the
findings of the survey meant that the development of a
coherent, universal e-commerce strategy for its supply-side
was not possible. The majority of its suppliers additionally
supplied other tier-1 and retail customers, with the result that
they were unwilling and unable to invest in a Princes-specific
approach. Princes only feasible option at this stage was
therefore to continue with a piecemeal approach to supply-
side e-commerce in the hope that technical developments
would ultimately lead to improved accessibility and greater
standardisation.
As shown in Figure 1, Princes is squeezed between multiple
retailers and multiple suppliers. Whilst there is some
coherence of approach to e-commerce among the retailers
(EDI) the study has found that there is no common approach
or purpose within the supply base. Princes finds itself forced
to adopt different prescribed systems at its demand-side but
unable to develop a unified approach at its supply-side.
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Volume 11 · Number 4 · 2006 · 353 –362
Arguably this uncomfortable position is a general feature of
tier-1 supply within the FMCG sector. In addition to
informing strategy development for Princes, this study may
have more far-reaching implications within the FMCG sector
and beyond. For organisations (suppliers) with just one
customer who wants to trade using a particular approach (e.g.
EDI) the associated investment may be seen as too large and
uncertain. On the other hand, if the supplier has several
customers demanding the same approach then the investment
may more easily be justified. Where customers demand
different approaches, the supplier must apportion the
investment among the different relationships. This process
of investment may ultimately lead to structural changes within
the industry via the development of a range of tier-1 supplier
types, defined by their approach to the use of e-commerce. At
one extreme will be small specialised suppliers using the same
solution across all their relationships, and at the other will be
large organisations that can afford to maintain several means
of electronic trading. As a supplier, Princes falls within the
latter category, whilst the majority of its own suppliers fall into
the middle ground of having multiple customers, insufficient
financial resource to fund a variety of solutions and hence
little enthusiasm for e-commerce. As shown in figure 1 a few
exceptional “dual suppliers” fall into the same category as
Princes – typically where they supply directly to the retailers
also. This view of future industry re-structuring has parallels
to developments within the automotive industry where tier-1
suppliers have increased in power and size, and are able to
trade with a range of customers using alternative e-commerce
solutions[3].
Notes
1 Groupware is a range of software tools and associated
technology that is used to support groups of people
working together. Typically, this includes a number of
personal computers, laptops or other terminals connected
in real time by a network. The span can range from a
single room to full global reach achieved by internet links.
2 Middleware is defined here as a separate software
application that interfaces between two disparate
applications and enables the transfer of information and
the synchronisation of activities between the two
applications.
3 The ideas discussed in the final paragraph were stimulated
by the comments of an anonymous reviewer. We are
grateful for the contribution.
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