OPERATIONS ☛ WEB VERSION: Click Here
7 order fulfilment challenges for e-tailers and how to overcome them
By Claire Umney, managing director, Breathe Technologies
UK online sales grew 74.4 per cent year on year to January 2021. Consumers have had to shop online out of necessity through the pandemic, but the online spending surge has since showed no signs of slowing, marking a permanent shift in buying habits. In fact, our recent research with 1,500 consumers found 82 per cent said they expected to maintain or increase current levels of online spending.
T
hese increasing volumes has made managing deliveries
and returns, while trying to ensure accuracy and improve sustainability, even more challenging for e-tailers. The key is to strike the right balance between customer delight and maintaining an economically viable operation, and central to this is an agile, f lexible and streamlined order fulfilment process. Here are the most common order fulfilment challenges facing e-tailers, and how they can overcome them to deliver on their customer promises.
1 10
Matching technology to the needs of the customer Maximising the volume of orders
you can fulfil requires robust physical and digital technology within warehouses and distribution centres. Many businesses we work with know they need to automate to hit the levels of fulfilment the market demands, but do not always know where to start. It can be perceived as daunting or cost prohibitive, but you do not have to go from zero to 100 per cent straight away. Robotics for example, offer a level of flexibility, scalability
and fantastic ROI, which makes them an attractive and affordable solution to compete in the eCommerce space.
2 3
Satisfying the call of ‘I want it now’ Failure to deliver to customer expectations
can mean losing sales to competitors – our research found that a third of consumers would rather buy elsewhere than suffer an extended delivery service. Retailers like Amazon are setting the pace with increased shipping options of same-day and one-day delivery. A delivery management software platform that integrates all your carrier partners will ensure you can; remain f lexible to keep your operations moving through surges in demand, lower your costs by selecting the optimum carrier to meet performance metrics and improve accuracy to get it right first time.
Managing peaks Making sure your order fulfilment processes are set up to cope with
everyday order volumes can be a challenge itself,
Direct Commerce |
homeofdirectcommerce.com
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 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76
