It’s difficult to pinpoint when the 3PL “industry” really began. In a quite definitive post on the history of 3PLs, our colleagues at Cerasis point out that the term can be traced back to the 1970s and 1980s as more and more businesses began outsourcing more and more logistics.

In any case, due to the value that third-party logistics offered, the sector ticked along nicely and predictably for a couple decades.

Then along came ecommerce and nothing has been the same since.

Even just five years ago you would have been hard pressed to find more than a handful of 3PLs offering any sort of ecommerce support. While ecommerce enjoyed lots of media attention for its consistent double-digit sales growth, it remained well below 5% of total retail sales in the U.S. in 2010.

Today it’s a different story. Third-quarter 2015 ecommerce sales were 7.5% of all retail sales (if that number still seems small, consider that it’s over 50% higher than the 2010 figure). And the National Retail Federation is predicting that ecommerce sales may account for as much as 16% of 2015 holiday season sales.

The emergence of ecommerce has foisted disruptive changes on progressive third-party fulfillment companies in a relatively short time:

• Developing ecommerce website options, including shopping cart functionality and credit card processing
• Including multi-channel sales support
• Greater customization of services to suit a wider variety of customers
• More complete supply chain management

While they may now be the norm for those 3PLs that have grasped the changes, this holiday sales season is showing the emergence of at least one more ecommerce trend that could disrupt yet another offering.

Similar to ecommerce, mobile commerce, or mcommerce, has received more than its fair share of publicity. It also experiences astonishing growth, but has yet to make a really big splash in terms of sheer dollar volume.

Mcommerce sales are expected to increase 35% in 2015 and they represent 30% of all ecommerce sales.

But until now, mobile shoppers have tended to browse on their smartphones and buy on their laptop. Until now.

Google has recently released holiday shopping analytics results that show, while smartphone shopping is on the increase, mobile shopping sessions are now 7% shorter (Sept, 2014 vs Sept. 2015). Google’s conclusion is that smartphone users are shopping in “micro-moments”, or during spare moments, like when they are in a lineup or commuting.

The Disruption for 3PLs? If you offer ecommerce web services to your customers, not only should the websites you develop be mobile-friendly, they must be optimized for fast, easy purchases on smartphones.