1.**Using their information systems to acquire relief supplies (forward-flow) and sell relief surplus products (reverse-flow).**

Developing sources for the acquisition of relief items to satisfy the surging demand of beneficiaries during disaster relief operations is a key task of disaster planning [14]. Meanwhile, once the relief supplies are removed and replenished with fresh items, it is important to find a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to ensure the appropriate reuse of relief surplus products. The e-commerce platforms, such as Amazon.com, JD.com, and Alibaba.com, cannot only act as the suppliers of a wide range of relief materials but also provide marketplace services to assist the reverse flow of relief surplus products.

During the recent outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), one of the leading online retailing E-platform in China, JD.com, has launched an information platform for emergency resource sharing, which serves over 15,000 customers around the nation, including thousands of government agencies and health care institutions. Based on the information platform, the company has provided, on aggregate, over 660 million pieces of relief items within the first month of the pandemic. On the other hand, selling relief surplus products by using online platforms and information technology enables the humanitarian organizations to get access to the people in need with alternative sources, whereby the proportion of inappropriate deliveries would be controlled at a minimum level. Because poor inventory management is always to blame for the great waste of relief supplies, selling relief surplus products via transparent online platforms also forces the humanitarian organizations to take good care of their relief inventories before transferring them to the re-users.

**187**

for the pandemic.

*Disaster Relief Supply Management*

and relief operations.

**4.4 Retailer network**

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94008*

2.**Using their delivery system to distribute the products.**

Disaster relief is about 80% of logistics it would follow [7]. As relief supplies are

Demand is highly uncertain in the humanitarian context. Information concerning the disaster timing and location, available resources, functional infrastructure, type and size of beneficiaries' needs, is always limited, rough, inaccurate, and hysteretic. Prepositioned inventories held or managed by the government or humanitarian organizations may sometimes not satisfy the beneficiaries' demand in type and quantity, or cannot be transported to the disaster sites in time. In case of such failures, the local government and humanitarian organizations with the official background (e.g., the Red Cross) should make the full use of social resources. Requisitioning local retailers' reserves of needed commodities or signing agreements with local convenience or pharmaceutical chain stores to stockpile relief inventories are both honored to ensure the efficiency of disaster relief supply chains. In 2015, the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs has published the *Guidance on Strengthening the Construction of Relief Material Reserve System for Natural Disasters* wherein the social reserves are recommended as necessary supplements to the governmental reserves. Most local governments in the high-risk areas of natural disasters have established partnerships of stockpiling relief supplies with private sectors. Supported by its vast retailing network in Sichuan Province, for instance, the distribution centers of Chengdu Hongqi Chain Store were on standby 24/7 to guarantee the supply and

allocation of emergency materials during the yearly flood season.

Other than supporting the last-mile delivery of relief supplies, the retailer network is also distributed as the outlet for the public to acquire relief and living commodities, particularly under the quarantine and distancing policy in prevention

very likely to be distributed in challenging situations while in presence of compromised infrastructure, destroyed or blocked roads and limited manpower and resources, a widely-covered supply chain network (including the supplier partnerships, warehousing, and transportation systems and personnel resources) with well-established logistics mandates and information system will save a lot of time in delivery. Many e-commerce platforms have their own self-supporting logistics service system like Amazon.com and JD.com [15], laying the groundwork for a highly efficient distribution network. To combat the pandemic COVID-19, the Hubei Provincial Government cooperated with the JD logistics to manage the disaster relief supply chains. By utilizing their supplier resources and logistics system, JD logistics has distributed over 2000 tons of relief supplies to Wuhan and its neighboring areas in the first twenty days since Wuhan's lockdown. Without the support of JD logistics, it would be extremely difficult for the local hospitals and community to acquire the whole and complete medical supplies and living necessities that were needed, and deliver them to the demand point in such a timely and cost-effective manner. Using the e-commerce platform's delivery system is beneficial for the integration of humanitarian logistics activities. While there may involve thousands of converging supply chains in disaster relief operations, lack of coordination is the chief cause of material, manpower, and information convergence. In contrast, given that the e-commerce platforms provide systematic logistics services through bridging the real-time demand with their partner suppliers' capacity, sharing their logistics services can reduce the overall logistics cost and improve the efficiency of rescue
