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Tag: eCommerce

Direct-to-Consumer Evolves

Posted on by David Priestman

A newly released report on the rise of Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) found that decision-makers across ecommerce, manufacturing, retail, transport and logistics supply chain, and wholesale businesses in North America find DTC channels key to unlocking better customer experiences and achieving higher profit margins.

The research, commissioned by Deposco, a leading provider of omnichannel supply chain fulfilment solutions, highlights these findings about the rise of Direct-to-Consumer models:

• When asked about key drivers for using DTC models over a third (36%) of respondents highlighted access to more customer data to drive business strategy and a further 31% referenced reduced costs
• Almost 9 out of 10 respondents (89%) have seen increased sales through DTC channels over the past 12 months

This report indicates a massive trend that DTC – which will contribute more than one-half of overall sales by 2026 – enhances the customers experience in tandem with ensuring profitability of organization as the biggest benefits of DTC. Further to this the report also reveals that sustainable practices are an emerging focus for DTC brands. Almost half (48%) of the sample say they have the capability to “easily combine separate orders for delivery at the same time”, an approach that reduces environmental emissions by bringing down the number of deliveries needed.

The focus on sustainability is also gathering ground across the wider supply chain, with 30% saying they are looking toward growing the proportion of stock sourced from nearshore suppliers. Long-term scalability and future success with DTC will require proactive moves toward enhanced efficiencies and operational savings. For example, investing in technologies that allow different retailers to collaborate on delivery runs, or incentivize consumers to go for a more sustainable option through a better price on consolidated orders, would benefit everyone.

Deposco’s complimentary report, ‘The Rise of Direct-to-Consumer in North America: How businesses can break through the barriers and make a success of DTC channels’, is now available.

Deposco’s Bright Suite of omnichannel fulfilment supply chain applications is how fast-growing companies rapidly scale their warehouse management and order management operations, so they can see what inventory they’ve got, where it is, and where to position it to fulfil demand when It’s Grow Time™. It’s the only solution that provides this much actionable insight into both your supply chain and the broader marketplace. Streamlined into One Solution, One Focus, One Team. That’s why over 3,000 of the world’s fastest-growing ecommerce and DTC businesses rely on Deposco. We’re supporting over $10 billion in sales and over 51 million consumer orders annually. Last year, we saw total shipment growth increase by 78%.

Automation Key to Warehouse Demand

Posted on by David Priestman

For warehouse and logistics companies, the struggle to keep up with changing consumer demand and rapid delivery expectations can make every day seem like a peak shopping season. Keith Fisher, president of Honeywell Warehouse Automation, explores how warehouses can manage.

Winter 2022 stands testament to the unpredictability of retail demand. While the winter holidays have historically been a period of peak consumer shopping, a mix of economic factors made the 2022 holiday season one of shrinking sales volumes for UK retailers. According to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) , total sales rose by 6.9% in December 2022 compared to the previous year, but this figure is skewed by high inflation — in reality, the volume of retail sales declined sharply.

However, not all retailers were hit equally. E-commerce sales were harder hit during the holidays with the IMRG Online Retail Index showing sales fell by 12% in December, marking 2022 as the year that bucked a trend of growth for online retail. Meanwhile, data from the BRC indicates that physical stores received their highest footfall since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, with retailers benefiting from offering in-store pickup of online orders. From a logistics perspective, this high street resurgence produced a greater-than-usual emphasis on efficiently fulfilling conventional retail stock orders. In addition, several retailers found that holiday sales were spread out across a longer timescale — for example, JD Sports reportedly commented that higher rates of inflation had prompted customers to buy sooner.

For warehouse operators, the holiday period has long come with a peak in demand that requires increasing levels of efficiency and throughput to manage. Yet in recent years, fuelled by the e-commerce boom seen over the course of the pandemic, the unpredictability of sales volumes — alongside greater expectations for rapid delivery and order fulfilment — has pushed logistics to its limits. Though the holiday season is now behind us for another year, it’s important that logistics companies take the time to address ways to alleviate strain on their operations when responding to rapid changes in demand — both during holiday peaks and year-round as the traditional sales cycle shifts.

According to recent Honeywell research , it is now common for warehouses to be faced with labour challenges year-round rather than just the holiday season – from dealing with an aging workforce to attracting, training and retaining the right talent. This is leading to a consistent shortfall of workers in warehouses. Furthermore, the general popularity of e-commerce and flash sales only add to the pressures on warehouse workers throughout the year, creating a situation where any day or week can see increases in demand. This is exacerbated by the shift to next-day and same-day delivery, which has largely become a customer expectation in recent years. The need to deliver on such a demanding expectation has led many warehouse operators to transition from larger distribution centres to operating a series of smaller, distributed warehouse facilities — something that brings its own challenges by making space a premium.

Due to these pressures, warehouse operators are looking for new ways of working efficiently. If they are yet to do so, warehouses will have to automate processes not only to thrive but endure the strains during periods of increased consumer demand and to alleviate the pressures of staffing shortages. We are increasingly seeing automation and digital technologies expand into new warehouse operations, from voice-integrated picking robots to autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) moving goods between warehouse zones.

The goal of warehouse automation systems shouldn’t necessarily be to just shift tasks from workers to automated systems as much as it is to scale capacity by augmenting human talent. This includes upskilling and refocusing employees towards higher-level, more challenging tasks, while leaving time consuming tasks to automated devices.

However, it’s essential to note that there is no one-size-fits-all automation solution to a warehouse’s demand pressures. For example, smaller distribution facilities will benefit more from an automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) than from several AMRs due to the space constraints. Additionally, software is the key piece that ties all this technology together and helps orchestrate it. Integrating automation technology through warehouse management and execution systems further optimizes solutions to create efficiencies.

While the exact application requirements and the maturity of automation deployments vary, there are some consistent approaches that operators can take to ensure their journey into warehouse automation is effective and future-proof. Prioritising predictability and reliability over speed, measuring the right return on investment, and planning flexibility into implementation projects are all valuable steps.

Winter 2022 signified a shift in the seasonal sales cycle for UK retailers; one that highlighted the unpredictability of retail demand. Although a decline was anticipated, the consumer move to earlier purchasing and back to high street stores was an unexpected one that again required a shift in logistics operations. Warehouse and logistics businesses should always be prepared for the next rise or change in demand. Currently, the day-to-day pressures are posing enough of a challenge for many companies to make one thing clear: warehouse automation is essential now.

Asendia ecommerce Strategic Partnership

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Asendia, the joint venture between La Poste and Swiss Post, and Omniva, the Estonian National Postal Operator, have signed a strategic ecommerce partnership that will help e-tailers expand their sales into established and emerging markets and cover Asendia whole range of e-PAQ services.

Thanks to its wide network, logistics capabilities, strong regional relationships, and long-lasting experience in e-commerce, Omniva will connect Asendia not only to the Baltics, Finland and Eastern Europe but to Central Asia and the Caucasus region.

This partnership enables Asendia to offer e-retailers access to a global market of 294 million potential e-shoppers in 30 countries. According to estimates of the Statista Digital Market Outlook, the e-commerce revenue in the 9 countries of Central Asia and Caucasus region is expected to increase in the coming years, reaching a value of 15 Billon US$ by 2025. This makes these countries attractive destinations for cross-border retailers and marketplaces.

ecommerce Opportunity

Commenting on the partnership and the opportunity, Marc Pontet, CEO of Asendia, said, “Our partnership with Omniva illustrates our commitment to our customers to keep on developing our solutions in parts of the world where online shopping is growing fast and strongly.
Asendia will enable e-tailers in 17 countries to access this solution, thanks to an operational and sales presence in these important markets on 4 continents.

“Omniva and Asendia co-operation is a perfect fit. We both share the desire to provide extraordinary service for the B2C market and can see the great opportunity that this part of the world offers e-tailers abroad. Joining forces, we can cover the fastest growing markets and emerging ones, and provide seamless service for our customers,” said Mart Mägi, Chairman of the Omniva Management Board.

Both companies are very excited to launch the services under this partnership as soon as possible, with a launch scheduled during the second quarter of 2023.

Fashion Retail Fulfilment Centre

Posted on by David Priestman

When online fashion retailer ASOS embarked on setting up its fourth fulfilment centre, the company turned to tried and trusted materials handling partner, BS Handling Systems. ASOS took possession of the keys for the 437,000 sq. ft. Lichfield, UK, warehouse in January 2021 and had less than eight months to make the site fully operational by August of that year to support the Black Friday peak in November.

“In October 2020 we began a very rigorous tender process to identify suppliers who would not only deliver competitive and high quality solutions, but also work as part of a team in a flexible, adaptable and responsive manner,” explains Gary Beveridge, Director of Supply Chain Development for ASOS. Having previously worked with BS Handling Systems on a number of major projects, it was clear that they would be able not only to deliver the right solution, but also to adapt to the inevitable design changes that pop up as a project of this nature progresses.

“The first phase of BS Handling Systems’ support provided the major conveyor and despatch sorter elements. Later followed design and installation of additional smaller works including our secure caged area for high value items such as jewellery and belts; a hanging garment storage system that transports inbound goods on hangers (GOH) from goods in up to the top floor of the pick tower, and a conveyor solution to get waste cardboard boxes from all five storage floors of the pick tower out to the waste skips in the yard.”

Storage capacity of around 7 million units of stock

The site go-live was planned for August 2021, providing a storage capacity of around seven million units of stock and outbound capacity of a million units of stock shipped on customer orders each week. BS Handling Systems was responsible for creating the conveyor ring which helps move 1200 inbound cartons or returns totes, as well as
1200 outbound totes an hour through the pick tower. In addition, the company had to design, build and install a high speed despatch sorter with a capacity to handle up to 14,000 parcels an hour.

New stock, in cartons, is unloaded from delivery trucks and placed on the inbound conveyor system. This transports stock through two DWS (Dimensioning-Weighing-Scanning) systems and ultimately to its storage location in shelving on one of four put away zones on each of five storage floors of the pick tower. Outbound picked items are placed in colour coded totes – black for multiple orders and green for singles – these totes are transported down to one of four outbound tote sortation zones on the ground floor.

From here, the totes are delivered to one of four packing lines which BS Handling Systems designed and installed. Each line comprises of 20 packing benches and a conveyor with DWS systems to transport the packed goods to the despatch sorter inducts or direct to the loose load trailer despatch line. Four 2 x 2 Intralox ARB sorters – one per infeed line – divert the product to one of two banks of high-speed sorter inducts which merge the packages onto the despatch sorter or direct to the loose load trailer line.

Versatile high speed despatch sorter

The despatch sorter had to be capable of handling a wide range of package sizes and weights, from small items such as jewellery right up to large boxes with coats or pairs of boots. It had to be able to handle these varying sizes rapidly without error, as the long-term capacity target is four and half million units going out to customers each week during peak.

BS Handling Systems also designed and built a waste cardboard box removal system. This consisted of three steel chutes running from the top floor of the pick tower down to the first floor where the boxes dropped onto a dunnage conveyor belt taking them out to the automatic waste baler in the yard.

To avoid blockages occurring in the steel chutes, BS Handling Systems designed a clever, but simple ‘traffic light’ system at each input station on every chute. When arriving at the chute, the light is red and the operatives cannot put waste down the chute. The operator presses the ‘request use’ button, and once the light turns green they have a set period of time to safely dispose of the waste down the chute – locking out the other floors. This avoids too many boxes going down the chutes at one time and either blocking the chutes or over-loading the conveyor at the bottom.

The project also required BS Handling Systems to design and install a conveyor system that enabled the unloading and loading of goods from and into truck trailers. The solution included six man rider telescopic boom loaders; these booms improved the efficiency of unloading and loading goods directly from or into the back of the trailers.

A true partnership founded on a ‘can-do’ attitude

Beveridge added, “the team at BS Handling Systems did a fantastic job throughout. They are exceptionally easy to deal with and very responsive, always demonstrating a ‘can-do’ attitude. Without hesitation, they are willing to go ‘above and beyond’ to make sure that the end product delivered to ASOS is absolutely the best we can achieve. They now have a team of ten engineers on site providing 24/7 maintenance for the facility; this team works closely with GXO who run the operation for us. The maintenance team has integrated really well into our structure here in Lichfield. They have their own caged area on the ground floor with all the spares required to ensure we can keep the fulfilment centre running.”

More than just a supplier

“Rob, Stephen and the BS Handling Systems team have worked with ASOS for a long time and we consider them more than just a supplier. The timelines we had to achieve here at Lichfield were tight and it was comforting to know that we could trust BS Handling Systems not only to do a really professional job, but also to go above and beyond whenever it was necessary. There’s no question that, however challenging, they will always do what’s best for ASOS,” concludes Beveridge.

Funding to Boost Brands with Logistics Engine

Posted on by David Priestman

The logistics engine of Locad provides a cloud supply chain for brands to store, pack, ship, and track orders for ecommerce and omnichannel retail through a tech platform connecting a network of warehouses and shipping partners. Locad has announced it has raised an $11M Series A funding round to expand their supply chain platform that allows modern consumer brands in Asia-Pacific to automatically store, pack, ship and track their orders in a distributed, end-to-end supply chain as-a-service. The $11M Series A raised will be used towards network expansion, product development, and hiring talent across Asia-Pacific. The round was led by Reefknot Investments, a fund anchored by Temasek and logistics powerhouse Kuehne & Nagel.

Locad’s platform, dubbed the logistics engine, syncs inventory across sales channels such as Shopify, Lazada, Shopee, and TikTok Shop, and orchestrates end-to-end order fulfillment for B2C and B2B orders, from storage to delivery, through a network of warehouses and shipping partners. To date, Locad has served over 200 brands across Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Australia, and shipped more than 2 million orders while maintaining a 99% same-day order fulfillment rate.

“Ultimately, our goal is to enable a frictionless movement of physical goods and data across the supply chain for any brand and merchant, enabling anyone to sell anywhere, on any sales channel, and deliver seamlessly.” says Locad CEO and Co-founder Constantin Robertz, “As modern consumer brands are transforming to direct-to-consumer and omnichannel retail, we have seen that the supply chain and fulfillment infrastructure is a key barrier to scaling the business for many brands, and the bar is only rising further, due to higher customer expectations for fast delivery, and the complexity driven by an increasing number of sales channels.”

The series A funding round also saw participation from returning investors Sequoia India and Southeast Asia’s Surge, Febe Ventures, Antler, as well as new investors Access Ventures, JG Summit, and WTI.

“We are excited to partner with Locad to bring holistic end-to-end e-commerce logistics solutions to brands across Asia Pacific.” shares Ervin Lim, Vice President of Reefknot Investments, “Locad’s unique operating model of localizing warehouses into the cities ensures that inventory is kept close to the customers thereby enabling significant cost and time savings for both brand and consumer. We believe that Locad’s logistics engine will spur greater participation in the digital economy as consumers outside of Tier-1 cities can now receive their orders 2-3x faster at a fraction of the usual cost.”

Locad’s logistics engine provides the backbone to support the e-commerce and omnichannel growth of global consumer brands such as Havaianas, Reckitt Benckiser, and Emma Sleep in the region, while also expanding access to best-in-class logistics infrastructure to growing D2C brands and mid-market merchants.

“Success in omnichannel commerce for modern consumer brands requires a powerful supply chain orchestrated by software that seamlessly integrates the infrastructure of warehouses and shipping carriers. And that’s what we’re building here at Locad” added Constantin Robertz.

Committed to democratizing the back-end supply chain of e-commerce, Locad will use its $11M Series A funding towards building the region’s largest fulfillment network. The company is adding warehouses, partnering with transport operators, and hiring talent across the region to scale in Southeast Asia and Australia.

“Over the next 5 years, we expect to build the region’s largest network of warehouses, enabling next-day delivery in Tier 1 to 3 cities across the region, and make this available to brands and merchants in one integrated platform” concluded Constantin Robertz.

Locad is a logistics engine enabling e-commerce brands with a cloud supply chain to grow their omnichannel business and automatically store, pack, ship, and track orders across Asia-Pacific.

Locad’s tech platform syncs inventory across online channels and organizes end-to-end order fulfillment through their reliable network of warehouses and carriers across Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Australia, with more locations opening soon. Through this, brands and merchants get a geographically distributed warehousing infrastructure that allows them to stock goods closer to customers, enabling faster delivery at lower cost.

 

Christmas Returns: Begins Within Days

Posted on by David Priestman

Some eager gift-getters even start returning presents on Christmas Day! Festive gift-getters are wasting little time in returning their unwanted Christmas presents, according to new data from nShift, a global leader in parcel delivery management software.

According to the analysis, 28 December – dubbed “Returns Wednesday” – was the most popular day for people to begin the process of returning unwanted gifts in 2022. However, many consumers were even quicker off the mark. Some even began sending things back on Christmas Day itself.

Philipp Goldberg, Product Director for Returns at nShift said, “This is yet more evidence that when people shop online, they expect to be able to return products quickly and simply. When a retailer does not make their returns policy clear, or the process seems cumbersome, shoppers are more likely to abandon their purchase. This may be especially the case when they are buying a gift for someone else.”

Christmas Returns

nShift compiled these statistics by analyzing returns data from the last week of December 2022. By looking at which day of the week carrier companies were alerted of the need to collect an item, they were able to determine which days were the most popular for people to get the ball rolling. Wednesday 28th was the most popular day, with over a quarter of returns requests from the week generated during that day. This was closely followed by Thursday 29th and Tuesday 27th.

The full statistics are:

Date – % of the week’s returns data generated

Sunday 25 December (Christmas Day): 1%, Monday 26 December: 3.4%, Tuesday 27 December: 22%, Wednesday 28 December: 25.6%,Thursday 29 December: 22.3%,Friday 30 December:

19%, Saturday 31 December: 6.7%

Philipp Goldberg continues: “To ensure they increase conversions and keep customers coming back for more, retailers must offer a compelling returns policy and make it easy for both consumers and warehouses to operate. Digitizing the returns process can help make it accessible for the consumer and cut down on processing time.”

nShift’s returns solution helps ease the administrative burden while ensuring a smooth, friction-free journey for customers looking to return their orders. It enables customers to: Avoid handwritten return slips, Re-convert 30% of returns to exchanges, Keep customers up to date on return status, Work in a data-driven way and analyze returns in real-time, Always keep track of how many returns are en-route to the warehouse.

nShift compiled these statistics by analyzing returns data from the last week of December 2022. By looking at which day of the week carrier companies were alerted of the need to collect an item, they were able to determine which days were the most popular for people to get the ball rolling. Wednesday 28 was the most popular day, with over a quarter of returns requests from the week generated during that day. This was closely followed by Thursday 29 (22.3%) and Tuesday 27 (22%).

Small-Items Sweet Spot

Posted on by David Priestman

Storage of small items in ecommerce distribution centres often makes usage of cube ASRS. AutoStore integrator Element Logic launched to the UK at IMHX 2019. At this year’s show, we found out how it is helping businesses of all sizes optimise their ecommerce picking operations.

Starting at Element Logic as UK sales manager in September 2019, Gavin Harrison came to IMHX 2019 with the clear aim of building the Norwegian AutoStore system integrator’s UK market. Now boasting a staff of 20, the company has come a long way. Three years ago it had no UK AutoStore reference sites; today Harrison says it has more than any other AutoStore distributor in the UK.
Initially dominant in AutoStore’s homeland of Norway, a 2021 buy-out by a private equity firm has seen Element Logic’s ambition lead to it picking up household-name customers. For example, its Manchester project for the THG’s online cosmetics business was the biggest single AutoStore grid in the UK, featuring 300,000 bins, 380 robots and 69 ports.

THG sits in the sweet spot where AutoStore’s strength lies – single-unit picking of small items. The pandemic helped to feed Element Logic’s growth opportunities thanks to the boom in online shopping. Furthermore, pickers using AutoStore are physically unable to be closer than two metres apart, meaning staffing levels were unaffected by social distancing constraints.

“It’s been a whirlwind journey, because prior to 2019 there were only a couple of AutoStores in the UK,” says Harrison. “Today in the UK, there are maybe 15 to 20, so it’s still considered a new technology even though it’s been around for 15+ years. Ten of those are ours, with customers varying from businesses such as the husband and wife family-owned football kit business Direct Soccer. They’re an SME up in Dundee, and invested in a system back in 2020, and have now grown and extended it.”

The difference in size between Direct Soccer and THG is considerable, yet AutoStore makes a positive difference to both businesses. Harrison says Element Logic can make a case for automating a warehouse with as few as 10 to 15 pickers: “We can condense that down to two or three, and therefore show good ROI. We design the system based on where you are at the moment, not where you’ll be in the future. Businesses can then just expand the system. As it can be leased, businesses don’t take a CapEx hit.”

A USP of AutoStore is that it can be installed in brownfield sites as well as new-build, as it fits around irregularities such as columns and low roof heights. This allow a business to stay in its existing facility, rather than move to a new one. It only requires a flat floor, has a low point load, and runs off standard household single-phase power.

Small items density

Element Logic can condense AutoStore it into a small area, making it suitable for urban micro-fulfilment centres. “For us, there’s actually no difference between a big site and a small site apart from the amount of aluminium and robots that are there. Because we already work with SMEs, a micro-fulfilment centre for a big company is going to be exactly the same as small grid for a small business. This has been a really easy shift for us to make, whilst still using all the experience and knowledge we have previously acquired.”

AutoStore’s strengths play right into the hands of eCommerce businesses selling in sectors characterised by rapidly-changing trends, as it intelligently reconfigures stock positions to deliver fast-movers to pickers at high speeds. It also deals very capably with returns , previously a huge challenge in fashion where rates of up to 40% are common. “We have some very ambitious growth targets,” Harrison concludes. “I would hope that by the time the next IMHX rolls around [in 2025], we should be double where we are now and maybe more. Let’s see how the market responds.”

Home Delivery: Competitive Difference

Posted on by David Priestman

Peak season home delivery is more complex than ever. Andrew Tavener of Descartes explains how businesses should address the critical challenges.

In the face of peak season order volumes, last-mile delivery has become a trigger point for defining the customer experience. Unfortunately, as consumers head into the holiday shopping season, many are frustrated and taking action against poor performers.

A recent study of 8,000 European and North American consumers found that nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of consumers experienced delivery problems in the October–December 2021 holiday shopping period. The top three issues (see illustration) were related to timeliness: deliveries were late (26 percent); deliveries didn’t arrive when promised (22 percent); and time windows for deliveries were too long and inconvenient (22 percent). Plus, a disgruntled 16 percent didn’t receive their delivery.

This poor delivery performance can be catastrophic for retailers during peak season, especially with many online vendors relying on high sales volumes during the holidays to buoy revenues. Nearly one-quarter (23 percent) of the study respondents refused to order from poorly performing retailers again; nearly a quarter lost trust in both the delivery company (24 percent) and the retailer (21 percent). Additionally, 17 percent of consumers indicated they advised friends and family to avoid the retailer. E-commerce vendors that accept mediocre delivery quality will likely experience hits to their holiday sales tallies as consumers turn to competitors that do find ways to meet consumers’ expectations.

Meeting the delivery performance expectations of holiday shoppers begins well before the product is loaded onto the truck — with visibility into the warehouse. From an inventory management (and customer trust) perspective, retailers must ensure the products presented online accurately reflect available inventory. Furthermore, consumers should be able to choose from various delivery options at the point of sale (POS).

On the home delivery front, while delivery speed remains – for many consumers – a factor in purchase decisions, notably, consumers place more value on retailers keeping their delivery promise. To meet delivery expectations and keep customers happy (preventing failed deliveries and returning for post-holiday purchases), e-commerce retailers must find ways to boost last-mile efficiency, productivity and reliability.

Sustainable home delivery

If all these factors weren’t challenging enough, further research around home delivery sustainability has revealed its increasing importance to a significant percentage of consumers. Indeed, only 38 percent of over 8000 consumers across nine countries in Europe and North America thought that most retailers were doing a good job of sustainable home delivery.

Furthermore, 60 percent of consumers today have environmental importance expectations for their home deliveries – from combining orders, accepting longer lead times for delivery, to having the retailer recommend the most friendly delivery option. And, if we look five years ahead, there is also a growing trend from consumers that the use of eco-friendly vehicles and a retailer’s ability to show home delivery carbon footprint will play a factor in their purchasing choices.

If a proportion of consumers are willing to compromise on convenience to ensure greater retailer sustainability, then the imperative to get efficiency and reliability right holds even greater emphasis, with a focus on making every mile as green as possible.

Competitive differentiator

While critical to an optimised customer experience, final mile delivery is a complex part of the fulfilment process – and is only becoming increasingly more so.

By implementing technology that creates efficiencies across the delivery lifecycle — from dynamic delivery appointment scheduling, delivery route planning, and continuous route optimisation to GPS-enabled real-time mobile tracking, mobile proof-of-delivery, and delivery status notifications — retailers can give consumers more delivery choices, improve delivery reliability, keep customers informed of delivery status, and – crucially – provide different consumers with parameters for home delivery that suit their specific priorities.

Indeed, gearing up with the right technology tools can help e-commerce retailers keep their delivery promise, whatever that may be — a critical factor in building customer loyalty and driving repeat business — by ensuring customers get the products they want, delivered to their door, at the expected time.

Moreover, these tools can also lay the foundation for agile and dynamic home delivery options that meet consumers’ growing needs for both convenience and sustainability.

www.descartes.com

Amazon uses seaways between Spain and Italy

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Amazon is taking advantage of Europe’s multimodal capabilities to expand its use of maritime transport via sea routes. Thousands of truck movements between Spain and Italy have already been taken off the road.

Almost half of the merchandise movements made by Amazon between its logistics centres in Italy and Spain are now made by sea, avoiding thousands of tonnes of CO₂ emissions.

Amazon operates multiple maritime routes to move inventory between the two logistics centres. According to Helder Velho, Vice President of Surface Transportation for Amazon in Europe: “Maritime routes, or highways of the sea, provide a more efficient and sustainable mode of transportation and, in some cases, are faster than other alternatives.”

Amazon says it is always looking for alternative forms of transportation for both deliveries and moving items between its fulfilment centres. In southern Europe, Amazon started with two maritime lines to be able to reach customers in Sardinia and Sicily in 2019. Since then, it has launched a multitude of maritime connections between Italy and Spain and today there are already more than 170 maritime connections throughout Europe.

This initiative is an integral part of Amazon’s goal of decarbonising its operations and achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2040, ten years before the Paris Agreement. To achieve this, it has partners such as European shipping company the Grimaldi Group that are at the forefront of sustainable maritime transport with state-of-the-art hybrid ships.

Francesco Satariano, Executive Key Account Manager of Maritime Lines of the Grimaldi Group, says:  “The strategic priority for the Grimaldi Group is to operate with sustainability in mind. In recent years, the Grimaldi Group has commissioned the construction of new ships that are more respectful of the environment and most of our fleet has been modernized to reduce the environmental impact.

“We were pioneers in the sector by installing technology on our ships that allows us to turn off the engines when approaching ports, achieving zero emissions in port. We were also one of the first to order and receive ships prepared for the use of ammonia. We believe in this alliance with long-term partnership with Amazon as we share a mutual commitment to reduce our environmental impact while delivering more value to customers.”

Support for local SMEs

Approximately 60% of the merchandise that Amazon has in its logistics network belongs to independent sellers. They are small and medium-sized companies that sell through Amazon in order to reach new customers outside their home countries. In this way Amazon benefits, on the one hand, its customers by providing a wider selection of products. On the other hand, sellers on Amazon achieve greater geographic reach with their products, facilitating their entry into markets in other countries in Europe. And everything, with a more sustainable transport method thanks to the fact that the trucks will travel by boat, reducing their emissions.

To ensure that Amazon’s European customers benefit from a large selection of products and fast, reliable delivery, it analyses which products are ordered most frequently and from where, and position those products in its centres closest to the customer. .

Case study

Sergio Panizza, from the Genoa-based Pesto Rossi factory in Italy, says: “Our family has been making pesto sauce in a small shop in Genoa since 1947, selling mostly locally. Our business suffered during the pandemic, so we decided to start selling through Amazon. Since then we have grown in number of clients and managed to sell our sauces to pesto fans in Spain, France and 12 other countries in Europe.

“By bringing our sauces closer to where our customers live, our products are available much faster and we benefit from having more international customers.”

Spanish exports to Italy registered €20,635.6m from January to August 2022, which represents an increase of 19.4% compared to the same period in 2021, while imports, at €17,708.4m, increased 24.1%.

 

Five ways to maximise Black Friday sales

Posted on by Peter MacLeod

Black Friday has moved from a single day to an almost week-long event of retail sales and promotions. Consumers now expect physical and online stores to take part and the build-up can be almost as big as the event itself.

Alex Borg, Technical Operations Manager at leading fulfilment provider, Zendbox, has shared five ways that eCommerce stores can prepare for the Black Friday sales, and how getting organised is the key to success.

Sweep your website

“With billions spent every year around Black Friday, you don’t want to miss out on sales because of a technically poor website. Audit your entire site to check for any possible problems that increased Black Friday traffic could cause. Start with your site speed; a slow website can turn people off straight away. Things like cleaning up your media library and optimising images can help, but you may also need to consider a fast host to really make your site reliable.”

“Go through every page to make sure there are no broken pages or expired links; no one likes to see a 404 error message when browsing for Black Friday deals. Finally, go through your checkout process. Is it seamless? Could you add more payment methods? Is there a guest checkout and, crucially, is it mobile friendly? Cart abandonment for Black Friday sits at around 77%, so do everything you can to enhance this final step for the user.”

Optimise your content

“There’s no use having great products at bargain prices if customers can’t find them. Read through your current category copy and see if it can be improved to include more keywords around the specific product, or if it could be made shorter and clearer for a better user experience. Update any products with title tags and clear descriptions. Use bullet points if possible. This will make your content informative for your customer but also easier to crawl for search engines.”

“Do this ahead of time. Many people will research what they want to buy on Black Friday and possibly come back to check for a discount during the event itself. You want to get people into the funnel early on so they remember you when the time comes.”

Inventory analysis

“It goes without saying that having enough stock is rule number one for Black Friday. Complete a thorough analysis of everything you have in stock and analyse sales for the previous Black Friday to forecast this year’s sales. Using an automated system will remove the margin for error so now might be a good time to look at an inventory analysis tool if you don’t already have one.”

“You may have decided to run your marketing using a loss leader or a breakeven product. In which case, use sales predictions to decide which products would be most fit for purpose and then check if you have enough available; if not, you can reorder ahead of the Black Friday deadline.”

Customer Service

“Black Friday can be a very hectic time for eCommerce stores, but also for customers too. Many consumers stock up ahead of Christmas or have multiple orders from multiple retailers. Providing excellent customer service could help with initial sales but, more importantly, with repeat custom and loyalty. Troubleshoot any potential problems, such as out of stock products, faulty items or late deliveries and refresh staff training in these areas. Consider adding a chat function to your website, if possible, to provide an initial response to any queries.”

“Delivery is a critical area for all eCommerce businesses. In fact, 63% of consumers cite delivery speed as an important factor when shopping online. Work out how you will cope with the increased shipping demands so that customers aren’t left waiting too long. You might need to use temporary staff or outsource your fulfilment operations to keep buyers happy.”

Marketing

“Now isn’t the time to cut back on marketing. It can be easy to focus on the logistics of Black Friday, but marketing is just as important. Plan ahead for people who are browsing now and waiting for Black Friday discounts by installing a pop-up box on your site. Suggest that by leaving an email address, they’ll be the first to know when an item is reduced for Black Friday. Analyse the items people are searching for most, or what sold in large volumes last year, and create email marketing around this.”

“Lastly, don’t forget social media. Ramp up your marketing efforts in this area and even consider social selling. TikTok has seen exponential growth for sellers on the platform. Black Friday could be just the time to get your teeth into a TikTok Shop or Instagram storefront.”

 

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