Inbound Logistics | August 2022

but inadequate, systems for order- taking and manually routing deliveries, the company knew it could deliver— literally—on its same-day promise. Scaling the service presented challenges, but GFS now leverages its last-mile strategy as a competitive advantage in 104 of its stores. The company’s enhanced online order management system (OMS) has visibility into both store and warehouse inventory so it knows if an “I need it now” order is in stock at the closest store, or has to be delivered to the store from the warehouse the next morning. Picking speed is important with in-stock orders because employees are competing with shoppers for products, so when there’s an order to ll, the OMS announces the news through the store’s public address system. “If there’s one loaf of bread left on the shelf, we need it for the online order or else we are conrming quantities we don’t have,” says Al Contreras, GFS customer innovation manager. LAST ORDERED, FIRST LOADED The OMS also eliminates the same-day delivery option every day at a congurable time, and removes that option sooner if the morning’s orders max out van capacity. In addition to routing deliveries for the refrigerated vans according to customer locations, the FarEye delivery management platform integrated into the system determines van loading ow so the last order is loaded rst. To keep the focus on customer service, a store can instruct FarEye’s routing software to split one van’s load into two so there’s no risk of a late delivery. “It takes more fuel, but I’d rather send two drivers out with half-full vans and get them to the customer on time than overload one and risk running late with any of them,” Contreras notes. That strategy has paid off. GFS sales increased 8.6% in 2021; the company credits the last-mile omnichannel strategy for 36% of that growth. “It was the right thing to do for our customers and our business,” says Contreras.

E -commerce growth, accelerated by the pandemic combined with organic changes in customer needs and expectations, has forced both business-to-consumer and business-to- business (B2B) brands to adjust their omnichannel mix. Consumers are driving much of the change, with 82% of those in the United States noting that “convenience” is important when shopping for non-essential items, according to research by e-commerce fulfillment provider PFS. While convenience can take many forms, it often involves options such as buy online pickup in store or faster delivery than in the past. Consumer expectations for selection and delivery speed carry over to the B2B side, as well. Business customers accustomed to getting same-day or next-day delivery in their personal lives, for example, have come to expect that from their business suppliers as well. How are retailers adjusting their omnichannel mix to meet business goals and customer expectations? Here’s how three brands built significant, lasting, and successful changes.

EXTREME CUSTOMER SERVICE: SAME-DAY DELIVERY Gordon Food Service (GFS) has been “passionately committed” to its customers since 1897, so when it noticed an increasingly common problem with some of them, it looked for a solution. As the largest family-operated broadline food distribution company in North America, GFS delivers to restaurants, healthcare institutions, and schools in the United States and Canada. The Michigan-based company also sells to restaurants and the general public

through more than 175 retail outlets in 12 midwest and northeast states. While restaurant customers receive weekly product deliveries, they often run out of key ingredients they need to replace quickly, usually by sending someone to a supermarket or a GFS store. GFS saw this pain point as an opportunity to provide an even higher level of customer service by offering supplemental same-day and next-day van deliveries from its stores. After piloting the deliver-from-store service on a small scale using existing,

Food distribution company Gordon Food Service is able to deliver key ingredients to customers the same day they are ordered by fulfilling from its stores.

46 Inbound Logistics • August 2022