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One of Europe’s leading direct to consumer e-commerce fulfilment provider companies, Alaiko, is expanding into the UK, setting up a flagship fulfilment centre in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. Unlike other logistics providers, Alaiko is a tech-first fulfilment company. It enables shops to manage e-commerce operations from start to finish, using its unique platform, the Alaiko Logistics Operating System®, along with industry leading warehouse technology and robotics to pick, pack and ship orders and process returns. Alaiko will provide British e-commerce businesses with a unique fulfilment option and allow them to seamlessly scale their business domestically and across Europe.

Alaiko recognises the huge growth potential for e-commerce businesses in the UK, which is home to Europe’s largest e-commerce market, with almost 50 million customers. In the wake of Brexit, British businesses have struggled to import and export internationally, facing customs backlogs and increased shipping costs. With its UK expansion alongside its EU fulfilment capabilities, Alaiko creates channels for British businesses to trade and operate in Europe and the UK, empowering mid-size businesses to win market share against large companies. Outsourcing through Alaiko provides faster delivery times and simplified returns management through the growing network of fulfilment centres throughout Europe. Products can be stored in the EU and shipped directly to enable fast national and cross-border shipping to avoid customs bottlenecks.

“As a global DTC brand, we work with various fulfilment providers in different regions. Alaiko stands out with its tech-first approach of modern warehousing and its software that leads to highly efficient operations. With the launch of the UK warehouse, we expect an even better experience for our customers in the UK and to grow our business faster,” said Jan Sapper, CEO of Paperlike.

In a first for the DTC market, Alaiko’s unique software offering combines processing and logistics in an end-to-end solution. The current tech landscape for DTC e-commerce brands is fragmented, with suppliers forced to patch together different solutions. Alaiko’s industry-leading platform offers brands full transparency and control across the whole supply chain. Once an order is received, Alaiko uses automation and robotics to enable picking, packing and shipping with efficiency and precision, and businesses can follow and manage this entire process in real time. Seamless communication for tracking and self-service options enable brands to focus on growth while offering a great customer experience. Where real-time tracking, fast delivery, and easy returns were once exclusive to e-commerce giants, Alaiko levels the playing field by making this possible for SMEs.

Unlike other third-party logistics providers, Alaiko also empowers brands to increase sales through its track and trace offering. Alaiko’s delivery tracking emails, which typically have very high open rates, do not redirect customers to third-party sites like delivery providers’. Instead, they send customers to a dedicated tracking page in the brand’s online shop. This allows e-commerce brands not only to trace the traffic of their link, but also to retarget customers with personalised marketing.

Moritz Weisbrodt, CEO, Alaiko, commented, ‘Alaiko’s UK launch is an exciting growth step and we see huge potential in this market for brands looking for a more effective way to deliver for their customers. We’re looking forward to facilitating warehouse and logistics for UK and EU customers. We believe that the people scaling an e-commerce brand deserve the best tools at their fingertips to run a business effectively and look after their customers. This is why we created an intuitive, industry-leading service; we run the logistics so that businesses can focus on the growth’.

Deposco, the omnichannel fulfilment supply chain solutions platform for brand owners, retailers, e-commerce, and 3PL companies, has launched the industry’s first true omnichannel supply chain solution to orchestrate the end-to-end processes – Plan, Source, Order, Fulfil, and Return – across B2B and DTC channels from a single package to full pallets.

In one cohesive Supply Chain Planning (SCP) and Fulfllment solution, businesses can replace inefficient manual processes with instant recommendations and automated workflows that remove the blinders between supply chain operations. The solution is designed to help customers lower their carrying costs, mitigate labour challenges, increase sales, and become more proactive and profitable in approaching inventory as one entity across all touchpoints.

“Creating value to fund growth in the volatile B2B and DTC markets has become a costly game that requires businesses to stock up, staff up, and delay growth initiatives due to processes and systems that can’t keep up,” said Bill Gibson, CEO of Deposco. “We are delighted to deliver a unified platform that feeds our customers with the information they need to put the right products at the right places at the right time and cost, rather than increasing inventory as a defensive response to ongoing changes and disruptions.”

Deposco’s Bright Suite omnichannel platform is the first of its kind to unite demand planning, supply planning, and order fulfilment through a single view of demand against real-time physical inventory execution everywhere. The platform is designed for B2B and DTC brands that need to scale growth and improve their omnichannel experiences but have not had the right tools to make timely, optimal decisions within the full context of their financial, operational, and service impacts.

Deposco’s singular omnichannel planning and fulfilment solution combines up-to-the-minute inventory data, automated demand planning insights, efficient operational workflows, and robust reporting across channels – with the flexibility to adapt and scale the technology going forward. Key benefits include:

• Coordinated decisions: Orchestrate the demand and supply end-to-end across planning and operations to respond to rapidly evolving changes, while improving cash-to-cash cycles and inventory acquisition/carrying costs.
• Improved Forecast Accuracy: Better product availability; efficient processes; and measurable forecast performance and improvements.
• Dynamically Optimised Inventory: Right inventory at the right locations, time-phased inventory investments, and automated safety stock policies to improve market agility, inventory turns, and GMROI.
• Automated Supply Planning: Efficient PO generation, real-time tracking of ASNs and receipts makes replenishment, buying, and supplier management fast and easy.

“By implementing Deposco’s supply chain planning solution into our fulfilment operations, we have seen significant improvements across our organisation,” said Bruce Bickford, Sr. Director of Supply Chain Management at RestorixHealth | AMT. “Now an end-to-end platform, the solution has transformed the way we operate. The implementation process was smooth, and Deposco has been a reliable partner for us.”
To learn more about the RestorixHealth | AMT end-to-end Deposco solution, please view the video case study here.

“No other partner offers this level of real-time inventory visibility (or actionable insights), cross-functional collaboration and efficiencies, and agile decision-making,” Gibson said. “The addition of SCP supports our mission of positioning businesses to scale current growth while establishing resiliency, increased profitability, and speed-to-value that can be used to fund future growth.”

Available now to existing Deposco customers as a bundle, SCP rounds out Deposco’s Bright Suite of cloud-based omnichannel fulfilment applications, which include Warehouse Management System (WMS), Order Management and DOM (Distributed Order Management) solutions that can be implemented with the industry’s fastest time-to-value.

Tag: DTC

Direct to Consumer Fulfilment Provider in UK

End-to-end Omnichannel Planning & Fulfilment

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