Cyber sales season guide to overcome warehouse capacity constraints & provide faster delivery
Demand spikes created by cyber sales and other peak seasons makes scalability essential. Logistics providers need to offer online ordering, streamlined order fulfillment, and faster dispatch. CartonCloud provides seamless WMS/TMS software for SMEs.
It’s the most anticipated sales season of the year. For logistics operators, the cyber sales online shopping frenzy brings increased demand, warehouse capacity concerns, and accelerated last-mile dispatch expectations.
According to Shopify’s recent report, the Future of Commerce, 60% of global consumers expect same, next, or two-day delivery — and with online sales across Black Friday and Cyber Monday expected to soar for another year, this trend means 3PLs are expected to handle their highest volume of the year, with their fastest delivery timeframes.
For many direct-to-consumer brands, the cyber sales season accounts for the majority of their yearly sales. In the USA, cyber sales between Black Friday and Cyber Monday alone account for 20% of online sales from November to December 30th. The stakes are high, and those partnering with a 3PL provider to outsource their logistics will be looking for a 3PL provider who can offer online ordering, order tracking, and fast fulfilment.
Logistics providers need to offer online ordering, streamlined order fulfillment, and faster dispatch, while coping with increased demand. Many brands will anticipate higher-than-usual sales for the season, and will be looking to increase the stock on hand, requiring increased warehouse capacity. They need the ability to accept integrated online orders, train their team easily, ensure accuracy, and optimize their processes for faster order fulfillment. Here’s how.
Meet demand, delivery expectations, and omnichannel ordering this cyber sales season, with an integrated cloud-based WMS.
All growing 3PL warehouses need a scalable system, allowing them to easily ramp up operations without compromising accuracy, quality or speed. Demand spikes created by cyber sales and other peak seasons makes scalability essential.
Online ordering must be integrated from their customer’s Shopify or other online stores, directly to their WMS, allowing instant order updates and accurate order placement without middle handling. There are estimated to be 12-24 million e-commerce sites in the world, with new online stores opening each day, the majority of which are powered by Woocommerce or Shopify.
Their warehouse system also needs to be easy to use, and easy to train new employees. This way, seasonal workers can come on board for peak demand seasons, and pick up processes with ease. They can begin fulfilling orders faster, with higher accuracy — allowing the warehouse to be reactive in taking on new business. (An easy-to-use system is also a huge benefit towards staff enjoyment and can even help with warehouse staff retention.)
Finally, order tracking and system integrations with transport partners is essential to ensure seamless dispatch and delivery. Cloud-based 3PL software like CartonCloud also provides greater oversight for 3PLs and their customers, with automated data tracking in real-time.
This peak season, don’t reduce prices— win business by giving your customers more for less.
This cloud-based WMS software gives the ability to integrate directly with online ordering for faster and more accurate orders, transparency and order tracking, and simplified reporting they can access at any time, from their own customer portal.
You can also use your WMS software to help overcome warehouse capacity issues with clever storage options (FIFO, or high racking storage for low-volume goods), identifying stock replenishment for faster picking, or implementing wave picking for fast-moving goods.
Warehouses looking to increase their use of space may also offer cross docking for faster handling and dispatch, or use multiple warehouses or storefronts as stock depots to reduce last-mile distance. After the last two years of restrictions, this cyber sales season in-store footfall is forecast to increase, rising gradually back to pre-pandemic levels. Not only this, but storefronts can be used as local warehousing depots as well, allowing faster last-mile dispatch, or in-store pick-up, for those who use integrated cloud WMS systems for omnichannel ordering.
A report of Shopify store merchants found between January 1, 2021 and September 30, 2021, app installs for warehouse management grew by 198%, while app instals for order and shipping reporting grew by 53%, compared to the same period in 2020.
With greater digital adoption, software integrations between retail and logistics providers is essential. CartonCloud is a cloud-based warehouse and transport management system software provider, delivering easy-to-use systems to 3PL warehouse and transport operators globally. The powerful platform has built over 10k integrations for their customers, allowing seamless data flow between systems for transparency and accuracy across automated workflows.
With over 23,000 active daily users, the software company is expecting to see major spikes in warehouse order fulfillment and transport consignments over the next two months.
“It’s about equipping our customers to have the ability to offer more, with lower overheads, less time, and with the resources they have on hand. Our system simplifies complex logistics, doing the heavy lifting with data and workflow automation, to make their lives easier,” CartonCloud CEO Vincent Fletcher said.
“Our user-friendly mobile app is so intuitive, they can bring on new staff and train them in minutes, with ensured accuracy through barcode scanning, and order tracking transparency delivered directly to their customer’s portal. It removes tedious admin, reporting and data entry, and literally gives them the ability to increase what they offer, without any headaches.”
With the rise in e-commerce continuing, and more brands looking to outsource logistics, a gap in the market is opening for 3PLs who can offer more to customers.
To find out more about CartonCloud’s powerful, integrated WMS/TMS, visit www.cartoncloud.com
States across the Southeast woke up today to find that the immediate weather impacts from Hurricane Helene are done, but the impacts to people, businesses, and the supply chain continue to be a major headache, according to Everstream Analytics.
The primary problem is the collection of massive power outages caused by the storm’s punishing winds and rainfall, now affecting some 2 million customers across the Southeast region of the U.S.
One organization working to rush help to affected regions since the storm hit Florida’s western coast on Thursday night is the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). As it does after most serious storms, the group continues to marshal donated resources from supply chain service providers in order to store, stage, and deliver help where it’s needed.
Support for recovery efforts is coming from a massive injection of federal aid, since the White House declared states of emergency last week for Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Affected states are also supporting the rush of materials to needed zones by suspending transportation requirement such as certain licensing agreements, fuel taxes, weight restrictions, and hours of service caps, ALAN said.
E-commerce activity remains robust, but a growing number of consumers are reintegrating physical stores into their shopping journeys in 2024, emphasizing the need for retailers to focus on omnichannel business strategies. That’s according to an e-commerce study from Ryder System, Inc., released this week.
Ryder surveyed more than 1,300 consumers for its 2024 E-Commerce Consumer Study and found that 61% of consumers shop in-store “because they enjoy the experience,” a 21% increase compared to results from Ryder’s 2023 survey on the same subject. The current survey also found that 35% shop in-store because they don’t want to wait for online orders in the mail (up 4% from last year), and 15% say they shop in-store to avoid package theft (up 8% from last year).
“Retail and e-commerce continue to evolve,” Jeff Wolpov, Ryder’s senior vice president of e-commerce, said in a statement announcing the survey’s findings. “The emergence of e-commerce and growth of omnichannel fulfillment, particularly over the past four years, has altered consumer expectations and behavior dramatically and will continue to do so as time and technology allow.
“This latest study demonstrates that, while consumers maintain a robust
appetite for e-commerce, they are simultaneously embracing in-person shopping, presenting an impetus for merchants to refine their omnichannel strategies.”
Other findings include:
• Apparel and cosmetics shoppers show growing attraction to buying in-store. When purchasing apparel and cosmetics, shoppers are more inclined to make purchases in a physical location than they were last year, according to Ryder. Forty-one percent of shoppers who buy cosmetics said they prefer to do so either in a brand’s physical retail location or a department/convenience store (+9%). As for apparel shoppers, 54% said they prefer to buy clothing in those same brick-and-mortar locations (+9%).
• More customers prefer returning online purchases in physical stores. Fifty-five percent of shoppers (+15%) now say they would rather return online purchases in-store–the first time since early 2020 the preference to Buy Online Return In-Store (BORIS) has outweighed returning via mail, according to the survey. Forty percent of shoppers said they often make additional purchases when picking up or returning online purchases in-store (+2%).
• Consumers are extremely reliant on mobile devices when shopping in-store. This year’s survey reveals that 77% of consumers search for items on their mobile devices while in a store, Ryder said. Sixty-nine percent said they compare prices with items in nearby stores, 58% check availability at other stores, 31% want to learn more about a product, and 17% want to see other items frequently purchased with a product they’re considering.
Ryder said the findings also underscore the importance of investing in technology solutions that allow companies to provide customers with flexible purchasing options.
“Omnichannel strength is not a fad; it is a strategic necessity for e-commerce and retail businesses to stay competitive and achieve sustainable success in 2024 and beyond,” Wolpov also said. “The findings from this year’s study underscore what we know our customers are experiencing, which is the positive impact of integrating supply chain technology solutions across their sales channels, enabling them to provide their customers with flexible, convenient options to personalize their experience and heighten customer satisfaction.”
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
As the hours tick down toward a “seemingly imminent” strike by East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers, experts are warning that the impacts of that move would mushroom well-beyond the actual strike locations, causing prevalent shipping delays, container ship congestion, port congestion on West coast ports, and stranded freight.
However, a strike now seems “nearly unavoidable,” as no bargaining sessions are scheduled prior to the September 30 contract expiration between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) in their negotiations over wages and automation, according to the transportation law firm Scopelitis, Garvin, Light, Hanson & Feary.
The facilities affected would include some 45,000 port workers at 36 locations, including high-volume U.S. ports from Boston, New York / New Jersey, and Norfolk, to Savannah and Charleston, and down to New Orleans and Houston. With such widespread geography, a strike would likely lead to congestion from diverted traffic, as well as knock-on effects include the potential risk of increased freight rates and costly charges such as demurrage, detention, per diem, and dwell time fees on containers that may be slowed due to the congestion, according to an analysis by another transportation and logistics sector law firm, Benesch.
The weight of those combined blows means that many companies are already planning ways to minimize damage and recover quickly from the event. According to Scopelitis’ advice, mitigation measures could include: preparing for congestion on West coast ports, taking advantage of intermodal ground transportation where possible, looking for alternatives including air transport when necessary for urgent delivery, delaying shipping from East and Gulf coast ports until after the strike, and budgeting for increased freight and container fees.
Additional advice on softening the blow of a potential coastwide strike came from John Donigian, senior director of supply chain strategy at Moody’s. In a statement, he named six supply chain strategies for companies to consider: expedite certain shipments, reallocate existing inventory strategically, lock in alternative capacity with trucking and rail providers , communicate transparently with stakeholders to set realistic expectations for delivery timelines, shift sourcing to regional suppliers if possible, and utilize drop shipping to maintain sales.
National nonprofit Wreaths Across America (WAA) kicked off its 2024 season this week with a call for volunteers. The group, which honors U.S. military veterans through a range of civic outreach programs, is seeking trucking companies and professional drivers to help deliver wreaths to cemeteries across the country for its annual wreath-laying ceremony, December 14.
“Wreaths Across America relies on the transportation industry to move the mission. The Honor Fleet, composed of dedicated carriers, professional drivers, and other transportation partners, guarantees the delivery of millions of sponsored veterans’ wreaths to their destination each year,” Courtney George, WAA’s director of trucking and industry relations, said in a statement Tuesday. “Transportation partners benefit from driver retention and recruitment, employee engagement, positive brand exposure, and the opportunity to give back to their community’s veterans and military families.”
WAA delivers wreaths to more than 4,500 locations nationwide, and as of this week had added more than 20 loads to be delivered this season. The wreaths are donated by sponsors from across the country, delivered by truckers, and laid at the graves of veterans by WAA volunteers.
Wreaths Across America
Transportation companies interested in joining the Honor Fleet can visit the WAA website to find an open lane or contact the WAA transportation team at trucking@wreathsacrossamerica.org for more information.