4 5
SHIFT INVENTORY STRATEGICALLY. E-commerce strategy will continue to evolve through 2022 in two ways. First, brands and retailers will correct weaknesses identified due to supply chain
REFINE REVERSE LOGISTICS PROCESSES. In recent years, retail and e-commerce industry leaders have focused on optimizing forward supply chains for greater ef ciency, lower cost, and better automation. But the reverse supply chain has traditionally been forgotten. This will change signi cantly in 2022. As consumer buying habits continue to be robust, so too will product returns— and those returns will take up a larger share of retailers’ and e-commerce companies’ resources. This will be true for both B2C retailers and B2B companies, whether omnichannel or exclusively e-commerce. To mitigate this, supply chain leaders will shift their focus to modernizing their reverse logistics— a space that is still largely dependent on spreadsheets and manual tasks. Technology that delivers consistent work ows, better automation, and clearer visibility into the end-to- end returns process will be essential for retailers and e-commerce companies to keep their heads above the sea of returns. For their customers, a frictionless and responsive returns experience will improve satisfaction and drive loyalty in an era when it’s easier than ever to take their wallets elsewhere.
disruption, such as on-hand inventory levels being too low and single threaded solutions for sourcing or movement. Second, organizations will leverage multiple locations to fulfill orders. With rising transportation costs, brands and retailers will continue to shift inventory closer to their customers, whether that’s in stores or through other distribution centers. This shift reduces time from click to delivery and mitigates the costs. Opening additional locations to hold inventory and ensuring there is an order management system in place to direct orders to those inventory locations to be filled is a major priority for peak season in 2022. How retailers can plan for disruption in 2022. Given that there have been two years of supply chain disruption, retailers faced a challenging planning environment. 2020 and 2021 may not provide accurate benchmarks for future performance, and 2019 is too dated to support plans. The best approach will be to create the most accurate estimates possible of demand and required inventory levels and then develop contingency plans to adjust as plans actualize. Things like vendor managed inventory, distribution center inventory, store inventory that can be available to any customer, and additional safety stock for fast movers should help mitigate risk.
Laura Ritchey COO, Radial
7
6
LEVERAGE MULTIPLE CHANNELS. The e-commerce industry is
APPLY LAST-MILE TECHNOLOGY TO THE MIDDLE MILE.
bigger than ever, but customer satisfaction and the movement of goods have never been more of a challenge for product sellers. With trillions of dollars in sales up for the taking, e-commerce is poised for incredible growth in 2022 after an already record-breaking year. To succeed and compete against retail giants like Amazon, retailers need to diversify their sales channels. To do so, they must invest in adequate technology solutions that allow for seamless omnichannel operations and end-to-end visibility. Consumers now expect to be able to track their orders from start to finish. Providing customers with full transparency into the entire fulfillment process will no longer be an option, but will instead be a requirement. By investing in modern, innovative technologies, retailers can better serve customers despite ongoing and future supply chain disruptions in the year ahead.
Middle mile is the new last mile. The most complex aspect of logistics typically is that last mile to the customer’s door. But with the rise in e-commerce, the middle mile is becoming just as complicated. Responding to consumer demand for same- or next-day shipping, businesses now resort to less than truckload (LTL) shipping in the middle mile. LTL has outpaced long-haul trucking in both demand and cost during the past two years, nds U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, and it’s likely to continue to rise along with online shopping. LTL will be critical to local ful llment for companies competing with national brands. Businesses should consider applying last-mile logistics technology to the middle mile to improve ef ciency and reduce costs.
Samuel Parker Product Evangelist, Cin7
Gaurav Saran CEO, ReverseLogix
Satish Natarajan Co-founder and CEO, DispatchTrack
226 Inbound Logistics • January 2022
Powered by FlippingBook