Background

With the rapid development of information technology, electronic commerce has become an integral part of people’s daily lives. The network has the capacity to provide food, cloth ing, travel, entertainment, education and almost any other conceivable possibility. In a narrow sense, electronic commerce refers to global business trade activity using electronic tools such as the telegraph, telephone, radio, television, fax, computer or network, mobile communication, etc. (Turban et al. 2002). Electronic commerce represents a diverse portfolio of business arrangements based on computer networks, including goods and services exchange, advertising, consumer purchasing, intermediaries and other relevant models. The aforementioned body of possible transactions composes the general understanding of electronic commerce. In a broad sense, electronic commerce is a derivative of electronic business, and is a means for completing business affairs through an electronic medium. Companies can communicate internally or with suppliers, customers and partners and share business information or implement electronic business processes between enterprises. Connecting with technology in this way helps to improve the efficiency of production and distribution channels, inventory management, and the financial health of the enterprise. By December 2014, electronic commerce transactions in China exceeded more than 12.3 trillion Yuan with growth rate of 21.3% (Taobao Analysis 2015). With the development of electronic commerce, traditional supply chain management models have been subject to innovative new changes, leading to a more intuitive and flexible user experience. The next generation of customer interactions with online business presents new challenges and opportunities for supply chain management. In traditional supply chain modeling, upstream and downstream firms share benefits and information by connecting businesses to each other in order to realize mutual compensation and the advantages of common development. Classical supply chain interaction is characterized by the fact that retailers, suppliers and factories no longer act as isolated units, but rather as a collaborative body. It is important to focus on the sustainability of supply chain (Maria Vanalle and Blanco Santos 2014). This platform provides services or products to customers via different processes and activities, illustrated in Fig. 1 below: Figure 1 draws clear distinctions between the parties that take part in the supply process: customers, vendors and manufacturers. These entities are linked by information, capital, materials service and the flow of the product (Lambert and Cooper 2000). Products and value are created with the flow of capital and information, and different flows travel in different directions. The consequence of this directionality is that the functions and management of each of the different flows are distinct.