Impact of Supply Chain Management on OperationalEfficiency: A Study of Kerala’s E-Commerce Landscape

Supply Chain Management (SCM) plays an important part in enhancing operational efficiency, especially in the dynamic and customer-driven e-commerce sector. In Kerala, the growing e-commerce landscape faces notable challenges such as fragmented supply networks, ‎poor coordination, and limited real-time information sharing. These inefficiencies often result in increased costs, delayed deliveries, and ‎diminished service quality. This empirical study proposes a structured SCM framework focusing on three key dimensions, such as information flow, supply chain integration, and coordination mechanisms, and examines their influence on four operational performance indicators, like cost-efficiency, delivery speed, product quality, and operational flexibility. Primary data were collected from 426 respondents ‎working in Kerala’s e-commerce sector using a structured questionnaire. Statistical analysis using multiple linear regression revealed that all ‎three SCM practices significantly influence operational performance, with information flow showing the strongest impact (β = 0.338), fol‎lowed by supply chain integration (β = 0.297) and coordination mechanisms (β = 0.259). The overall framework described 47.9% of the ‎variance in operational performance (R² = 0.479). Additionally, the Kruskal-Wallis test confirmed significant differences in performance ‎across varying levels of SCM practice implementation (p < 0.01). The results affirm that efficient SCM practices directly enhance operational-‎al outcomes in Kerala’s e-commerce retail sector‎.