Baltic Journal of Management

Purpose – The paper aims to determine and assess the cost positions that mostly impact the company total cost efficiency in supply chain management under theoretical and empirical background.

Design/methodology/approach – In the paper, the systemic and logical analysis of e-commerce expert research made over the past several years was used. For the empirical research, the data of a wholesale company cost structure and processes management was used.

Findings – Major findings allow stating that e-commerce adoption in business has a positive impact on business efficiency in several areas. The quantitative and qualitative analysis of e-commerce impact on business efficiency shows that the main cost positions, which directly depend on e-commerce adoption and use, and experience quite big changes, are average cost of inventory management, the cost of materials ordering process, and the cost of labour.

Research limitations/implications – The presented empirical research confirms the theoretical implications of e-commerce impact on business efficiency. Using this information, the future research should be made on evaluation of indirect e-commerce impact on business efficiency.

Practical implications – The empirical research of e-commerce adoption in a wholesale company confirms that the main areas where e-commerce has an important positive impact on business efficiency are the cost of inventory management, the cost of materials ordering process and the cost of labour.

Originality/value – The e-commerce impact on business result analysis is improved by detailed costs, which depend on e-commerce adoption, analysis and definition of e-commerce impact on business results, by evaluating the business efficiency in quantitative and qualitative forms.