| 摘要 |
A system and method are disclosed for retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers of goods to anonymously collaborate in buying and selling order fulfillment contracts and options on order fulfillment contracts, for the purchase and delivery of inventory items. The system and method permit businesses to incur lower order fulfillment logistics costs while maintaining or improving customer service levels by using a dealer trading module (36) and system trading module (42) to sell order fulfillment contracts and options thereon. A dealer logistics planning module (32) uses information from dealer inventory (16), dealer forecasts (30), and system quotes (38) databases to develop a logistics action plan (34) before trading order fulfillment contracts or options thereon. Entities may buy and sell options for future deliveries of inventory. Use of the present invention may reduce inventory-carrying costs and order fulfillment transportation costs resulting in improved efficiency and profitability, while maintaining or improving customer service levels. |
