The disruptor called Covid: Disruption in international eCommerce flows, last mile distribution and shopping street real estate
Supply Chain
About the Topic
Some people say that the Corona pandemic is the worst economic nightmare since World War II. Others say ”never waste a good crisis” and consider the pandemic as an economic painter’s pallet full of opportunities.
One of the sectors seen as one of the winners of the economic corona “Game” is eCommerce and hence last mile distribution. ECommerce achieved growth figures that were only forecasted within a time horizon of 5 to 10 years.
Is this impressive growth in eCommerce a real blessing for the involved eCommerce stakeholders, or is it rather a reality check? Cross border eCommerce suffers due to a lack of airlift capacity on the main trade lanes. Delivery promises and pricing cannot always be met. The last mile distribution suffers due to peak volumes and a large amount of non standardized shipping items. Some experts notice that end-to-end eCommerce chains are still lagging behind in efficiency and effectivity. Are there still too many gaps in the value chain to turn it into a mature product?
And what about the shoppings streets? Is their death rattle coming faster due to the Corona pandemic? Or are consumers increasingly aware that eCommerce shopping is probably not the Holy Grail. How can real estate owners adapt to the new post pandemic shopping environment?
All these topics will be discussed during a webinar organized by the Antwerp Management School on March 24th at 3.30 pm with an exquisite moderator and some top experts. The moderation will be done by Prof. Dr. Tom van Woensel and the presentations and panel discussions will be done by Prof. Dr. Wouter Dewulf, Prof. Dr. Roel Gevaers and Prof. Dr. Ann Verhetsel.
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Practical info & Detailed Program
Practical info
Date: 24 March 2021
Time: 15:30 - 17:00
This event will take place online and is free of charge.
Registration is mandatory to get the link to access the webinar.
Detailed program
3.30pm – 3.35pm: Introduction by Prof. Dr. Tom Van Woensel
3.35pm – 3.50pm: Cross Border eCommerce: From disruptor to disrupted business model. The story of capacity and legislative squeeze by Prof. Dr. Wouter Dewulf
3.50pm – 4.05pm: Covid is the unforeseen stress test for several last mile distribution systems: Will they survive? by Prof. Dr. Roel Gevaers
4.05pm – 4.20pm: Is Covid killing the shopping streets? eCommerce and Covid impacts on shopping real estate by Prof. Dr. Ann Verhetsel
4.20pm – 4.50pm: Interactive Panel Discussion moderate by Prof. Dr. Tom Van Woensel with the following panelists:
- Prof. Dr. Wouter Dewulf
- Prof. Dr. Roel Gevaers
- Prof. Dr. Ann Verhetsel
4.50pm – 5.00pm: Closing by Prof. Dr. Tom Van Woensel
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About the speakers
Prof. Dr. Ann Verhetsel is currently teaching the courses Business location (formerly Economic Geography) and Real Estate Markets and Location (formerly Regional Economics) at the Faculty of Business and Economics. She also gives class in Introduction to Human Geography and Historical urban Geography at the History department of the Faculty of Arts. Finally, she takes care of the Property Markets course in the Master of Real Estate Management at the Antwerp Management School. In addition to her service functions within the University of Antwerp (currently head of the Department of Transport and Regional Economics), Ann Verhetsel was chairman of the FWO commission on the built environment during the past years. She also acts as referee for a wide range of international scientific organizations (such as NWO, ANR, ERC ...) as well as a large variety of (international) journals. She regularly resides in doctoral jury's at other Belgian and foreign universities and functions as a member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Sciences (Class Human Sciences).
Prof. Dr. Tom Van Woensel, Academic Director of the Global Supply Chain Management program Antwerp Management School
Tom Van Woensel is Full Professor of Freight Transport and Logistics in the OPAC group (Operations, Planning, Accounting and Control) of the department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences at the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven in the Netherlands. He leads the Smart Logistics research theme, a joint effort of around 15 people doing research in transport and logistics. Since July 2019, he is appointed as the Director of Education and Graduate Program Director of the Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences (around 2300 students in various BSc, MSc and PhD programs). He is also the program chair of the Bachelor Program Industrial Engineering (around 850 undergraduate students).
Prof. Van Woensel also serves as Academic Director of the Global Supply Chain Management program at the Antwerp Management School, Belgium. As a collaborating member, he is also connected to the CIRRELT (Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur les réseaux d’entreprise, la logistique et le transport) in Montreal, Canada.
Prof. Dr. Wouter Dewulf, is a professor at the University of Antwerp and C-MAT (Belgium) and is academic director of C-MAT. He is currently course coordinator for the courses 'Air Transport Economics and Business', 'Advanced Managerial Economics' and 'Project Methodology'. In addition, he teaches the courses 'Air Transport'.
His main areas of research are in the fields of air cargo, air transport strategy, E-commerce and urban logistics. He is a visiting professor at the University of Hasselt (Belgium), University of Chongqing (China) and Trisakti Institute of Transportation and Logistics (Jakarta, Indonesia). His Ph.D. dealt with the strategy of air cargo carriers.
Prof. dr. Wouter Dewulf is also active as VP External of the Air Transport Research Society, the organisation that links air transport researchers worldwide.
Prof. Dr. Roel Gevaers (1985) is a Professor, Senior Supply Chain Manager and Academic.
He obtained his Ph.D. about Innovations in Last Mile, Reverse and Waste Logistics at the University of Antwerp in 2013. During his academic research (since 2007), he adviced several governments and companies (ex. Flemish Government, P&G) on logistics and last mile topics. Since 2019 he is, next to his managerial activities, part-time professor at the University of Antwerp and since 2020 he is professor at the Antwerp Management School. Furthermore, he is also guest lecturer at several other international universities.
Prof. Dr. Roel Gevaers strongly believes in and supports collaborations and strong relations between business and academic research.
