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SUPPLY CHAIN SOLUTIONS
GET READY FOR PEAK
OMNICHANNEL FULFILMENT
Edward Hutchison, managing director of BITO Storage Systems, looks at ways retailers can get their storage ready to meet high customer service demands during the oncoming peak season.
W
hen you drill right down to the core challenges created by omni-channel retail, storage systems play a key role in ensuring smooth intralogistics
for successful fulfilment across the board. This will be on the minds of many retailers preparing for the annual peak season, kicking off with Black Friday on 24 November, followed by Cyber Monday and the Christmas shopping period. The total value of retail sales for the 2024 holiday season is forecast to reach £96 billion, according to Statista forecasts, which is a £3bn increase from last year. Given that 2023’s total sales accounted for £426.6bn, the peak period clearly matters.
Black Friday continues to be a big event in
itself. Last year it generated an estimated £13.3 billion in total sales, up 7.3 per cent year-on- year, according to market intelligence company Mintel. An important statistic for retailers to keep in mind for their fulfilment operations in 2024 is that 84 per cent of consumers agree that a positive experience with a retailer during Black Friday would encourage them to shop there again. Furthermore, Black Friday is not just online given 44 per cent of consumers purchased a 2023 Black Friday deal in-store. Competitive pressure is driving many retailers
to start early on their peak preparations, including for inventories to ensure fulfilment across all channels keeps customers happy.
Anywhere, anyhow fulfilment requires storage
and order picking systems that can facilitate rapid and accurate deliveries for store replenishment, click and collect and the direct to home channel. A single pool of stock within an omni-channel fulfilment facility will generally serve all channels, managed by sophisticated warehouse systems. The storage complexities of serving the
differing needs of multiple retail channels in terms of speeds and order quantities puts the focus firmly on solutions for picking operations. A warehouse will need to accommodate picking pallets and caseloads as well as large numbers of single items – some of which may go direct to a customers’ home, others will go to the store for click and collect – along with replenishment stock. For online orders, hit rates at pick slots are
much slower and the average web order tends to be a single item, though this of course varies depending on the retailer. A lot of travel can be involved in picking that order, resulting in quite a significant cost. Picking orders of mixed
26 SEPTEMBER 2024 | FACTORY&HANDLINGSOLUTIONS
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