www.bifa.org


Guest Column ‘Logistics is the new retail’


This sea change to multiple stocking locations, with the growing emphasis on global inventory management, represents an opportunity for 3pls to provide solutions to retailers in the form of multiple-user shared sites, explains Peter Ward


Amid the disruptions of a fragile, uncertain and changing world, the needs of technology- enabled consumers across the globe must be fulfilled. To service this ‘instant gratification’ generation and get the goods into their hands by any means, while still making profit, retailers have had to work smarter, expand their focus from a high street presence and allow logistics to become the new retail. A total of 75% of logistics activity relates to


the consumer, which is effectively retail, and there are new models coming onto the market – Amazon from the West and Alibaba from the East, whose goods are channelled through distribution and fulfilment centres, not retail outlets.


E-commerce Smartphone technology has opened up the world to e-commerce and in China alone 750 million new online consumers, many of whom have never seen the inside of a grocery or department store, are now being serviced by the likes of JD.com and Alibaba. The current threats to the global supply chain


– Brexit, volatile stock markets, humanitarian crises, terror attacks, a growing population that is living longer and wanting to live in cities – will all impact on the sourcing and movement of goods. One of the outcomes of the growth of


e-commerce in China is that for vendors the home market comes first, so that buyers from the UK and elsewhere can no longer expect to place


September 2017


Peter Ward: UKWA is helping its existing warehousing and logistics members to understand the new challenges, find business opportunities, and grow their capability to compete


minimum orders to suit peak season timeframes, which creates a dilemma about when to order and how to organise stock holding, putting additional pressure on 3pls. Whereas goods used to end up in a centrally


based warehouse for distribution several times a week, mainly to high street stores, there is now the additional need to service click and collect, process online orders for next day delivery, and in some cases within the hour in order to compete favourably with the likes of Amazon. Indeed, warehousing is replacing much of the high street footprint and job losses in retail are


being absorbed into logistics. A recent meeting of the UKWA Real Estate Advisory Board reported that logistics space is coming under increased pressure as it replaces high street footfall. Logistics was once a linear process from the


point of order to the point of delivery, but today the consumer is driving a global supply chain ecosystem with the need for multi-pace, multi- route channels to market. This increased level of complexity calls for greater flexibility and agility, and a shift of emphasis on logistics no longer focused just on basic transportation services but on managing inventory globally.


Global inventory management This sea change from the critical mass of single locations of the past to multiple stocking locations, with the growing emphasis on global inventory management, represents an opportunity for 3pls to provide solutions to those retailers in the form of multiple-user shared sites. Through its membership of The International


Federation of Warehousing and Logistics Associations (IFWLA), UKWA is helping its existing warehousing and logistics members to understand these new challenges, find business opportunities, and grow their capability to compete as agile global logistics solutions providers.


BIFA is grateful to the chief executive of the UK Warehousing Association, Peter Ward, for this article.


11


BIFAlink


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20