eStar has commissioned a comprehensive whitepaper Retail for the New World exploring how COVID-19 has changed consumers and what this means for eCommerce now and into the future.  

This research has shown due to the pandemic the “COVID Consumer” is gravitating toward retailers who can adhere to reliable delivery promises. Order management & fulfilment are more important than ever.

Executing systems and processes to fulfil an online order requires many hands touching a single order and when fulfilment systems are not designed for scale, even more “hands” touch the same order, increasing operational costs.    

Designing the fulfilment function for scale is strategic because being unprepared for operations in a “COVID World” will increase costs.  Without the ability to scale, profits can steadily degrade. 

Here are five primary areas of focus to ensure that order management and fulfilment functions effectively in a “COVID world” they are:

Software 

Having the right software delivers a high level of logic and intelligence that will actively control and scale fulfilment. Good software should do the following: 

1. Capture and reduce human error (46% of fulfilment errors are from employees).  
2. Enhance business reporting – transparency. 
3. Improve inventory accuracy. 
4. Enable the capability of a high standard of email notification messaging to be sent to the customer. 
5. Can rapidly send the order information to the right picking and packing site based on unique business rules and logic. 
6. Be able to send and receive information from one business system to another accurately and rapidly. 
7. Tight connectivity with eCommerce technology to enable rapid and accurate information to move from one system to another. 

The last point is especially important and must be entirely “two-way”. Not only is the eCommerce technology passing information to the order management system, but the order management system should be passing back order updates for customers to view in their own account.   

“COVID-Care plan” for warehouse employees 

One of the biggest challenges for fulfilment operations are the practices required in keeping employees safe. This is key to keeping warehouses and factories operating, and keeping products flowing. 

Partner with specialist third party logistics 

The partnerships with 3PL’s has grown in popularity because of COVID-19. The intricacies behind how this could work will differ for each retailer, but this partnership does have potential benefits for those retailers who feel exposed. 

This is because 3PLs can:  

• Take on all new procedure and system changes to prepare for the “COVID World”.  
• Take on the associated capital costs (which may be passed on, but this can be negotiated). 
• Employee management and support is the responsibility of the 3PL. 

Enhance transparency to customers 

It has been openly documented the large-scale issues that have arisen with last mile courier companies around the world.  To put this in perspective, both Fed Ex and UPS have announced the suspension of their own service guarantees. 

So how can retailers respond by ensuring a great delivery experience to their customers? They can promote click and collect to reduce the reliance on home delivery, and they can improve the notification experiences to keep customers informed. 

Dark Stores and Click & Collect 

The idea of building or converting stores exclusively for eCommerce fulfilment, what is commonly called a “dark store” has grown in popularity during the pandemic.

Click & Collect can leverage existing infrastructure and employees and provide businesses with additional scale.  

Streamlining operations to reduce delivery times is vital to ensuring you retain customers. You must prioritise fulfilment processes, the “COVID Consumer” demands it.

Click here to learn more and download the Whitepaper.