Jun 3, 2022 | Blog
As the average person’s shopping habits continue to evolve, so do the ways brands get products in their customers’ hands. The eCommerce industry has exploded in recent years, with companies constantly seeking out affordable, creative and effective ways to stand out from the competition while offering a convenient buying option.
The option to buy online and pick up instore, known as “BOPIS,” has allowed brands with brick-and-mortar locations to bridge the gap between their online and real-world storefronts. As BOPIS becomes more commonplace, online retailers are feeling the pressure to offer a pickup option as well.
Parcel lockers, a major feature of ShipHero Fulfillment Canada, are one method of expanding delivery options and allowing customers to get their orders in the way that best suits their lives. eCommerce shippers without the advantage of a brick-and-mortar storefront can have orders placed in these easy-to-access units, making life easier on the customer while saving on last-mile shipping.
What Are The Advantages of Parcel Lockers?
The growing popularity of in-person pickup is obvious when you consider the benefits. Let’s take a look at some of the advantages parcel lockers provide and what benefits they might have in store for your brand.
Customer Convenience
One of the major advantages of parcel lockers is the added customer convenience they provide. While in-store pickup only allows customers to collect their orders during regular business hours, parcel lockers can be accessed 24/7, allowing buyers to retrieve a package at a time that suits them best.
Allowing customers to arrive at the warehouses themselves also eliminates the need for last mile shipping, one of the more expensive steps in the fulfillment process. Avoiding the cost of postage, labeling and carrier fees can mean major savings for customers, encouraging them to continue using your brand as an affordable and convenient buying option.
Parcel Security
Outdoor storage lockers are exposed to the elements, but their contents won’t be. ShipHero Fulfillment Canada’s weatherproof outdoor locker system is designed to withstand the climate extremes of Canada, ensuring your items remain undamaged and shielded from the elements.
If you’re shipping perishable items, the inside of storage lockers are temperature controlled. This provides an ideal storage solution for eGrocers that need their fulfillment partners to make sure their products are kept fresh.
Visibility
One of the key expectations for customers and shippers alike is visibility. Partnering with a fulfillment 3PL that offers top-tier reporting and visibility gives you a better grasp on the progress of your shipments. That information can also be pushed to your customers, keeping them up to date on when to expect the item’s arrival.
B2B Distribution
Not only do parcel lockers make receiving orders easier for customers, but partnering businesses can also benefit from this feature. If you’re shipping component parts across Canada, for example, ShipHero Fulfillment Canada can facilitate those customers picking up the item at the time and location that works best for them.
With parcel lockers as one of your brand’s delivery options, business customers can place an order online, select the dropbox nearest to them, and be automatically notified when the package is ready for pickup. Once it’s ready, those lockers are accessible 24/7.
How Do Parcel Lockers Work?
For any eCommerce delivery strategy, visibility is key. Clear and consistent communication with the customer can minimize the risk of misships and costly returns, while supporting your buyers and giving them a reason to return in the future.
When an order is placed and pushed to ShipHero, buyers and sellers are provided with a comprehensive report of the package and can track its progress as it moves throughout the fulfillment process. When a customer opts for a parcel locker pickup, they are sent a barcode and pin code that grants them access to the locker at the specified location.
Conclusion
Big brands aren’t the only ones that can offer a pickup delivery option. Now, thanks to parcel lockers throughout Canada, exclusively online stores can give their customers the convenience of a 24/7 pickup option.
If you’re looking for a fulfillment partner to help optimize your delivery process, contact the Fulfillment Experts at ShipHero today.
Click HERE to Schedule a Meeting Today
May 27, 2022 | Blog
There’s a lot more to returns management than placing an item back on the shelf. In fact, returns can often be one of the most expensive and time consuming aspects of fulfillment, and quickly become a point of frustration for paying customers.
A comprehensive and efficient returns process, on the other hand, can help maximize your brand’s inventory space and easily recover the lost value of a returned shipment.
What is Returns Management
Returns management is the process of receiving, storing and reclaiming value from products that are sent back by the customer. It also offers an opportunity to identify the reasons for returns, such as misships, damage or defects.
A disorganized returns process can lead to a cascade of issues throughout your fulfillment center and ultimately impact the customer’s experience. Ramped up holding costs, limited storage space and additional work for your staff can lead to higher prices and warehouse bottlenecks. When aiming to maintain a flexible supply chain, avoiding these issues is crucial.
With so much competition in the fast-paced field of eCommerce, keeping up an optimized returns policy can give your brand the edge it needs to stand out from the crowd. Luckily, recent trends in eCommerce have made implementing the process easier than ever.
Reverse Logistics
One of the overarching goals of modifying your supply chain for optimal returns is to make your delivery process work in reverse. Rather than products moving one way, from warehouse to customer, reverse logistics ensures that products can also move in the opposite direction, from customer to warehouse.
The ultimate goal of reverse logistics is to provide an optimized method for receiving returns and reclaiming as much value as possible. According to Invesp, nearly one third of online orders are returned, compared to in-store purchases which are returned at a rate of 10%. As eCommerce continues to grow in popularity, it’s more important than ever for online retailers to set up a thought-out and optimized approach for a good returns process flow.
Let’s take a look at what needs to be prioritized when setting up reverse logistics, and how you can streamline returns management.
How to Streamline Returns Management
An efficient returns management process involves a multifaceted approach both in terms of warehouse operations and customer outreach. With upfront customer communication, proper data capture and an emphasis on quality assurance in the warehouse, setting up a reverse logistics protocol can be much easier.
Customer Communication
Cutting down on returns can sometimes be as easy as setting up clear and consistent communication with your customers. The decision to return an item is often because it doesn’t quite meet the expectations they got from the eCommerce store. Without the ability to physically hold or interact with an item before making a purchase, online shoppers rely on eCommerce platforms to tell them exactly what the product looks like and how it works.
By providing a detailed description that includes the item’s dimensions, color and functionality, your customers know exactly what they’re getting and can feel better about making an informed purchasing decision.
Beyond product descriptions, communicating how the returns process works is essential for reverse logistics to function. When a delivery is completed, customers should be made aware of how long they have to make a refundable return and how to get that process started. When a customer decides to send an item back, making them comfortable and confident about the process is a great way to keep them coming back, despite their dissatisfaction with the product.
Data Capture on Returned Items
Building a streamlined returns management process requires you to identify which products are returned most often and why customers are sending them back. Tracking this information is much easier when you have quality warehouse management software, or WMS, in your tool kit.
With all of your incoming and outgoing inventory pushed through a WMS, you’ll have insight into what items are being returned the most and why customers are sending them back. If one item is frequently returned for damages, for example, you can trace those issues back to the source, whether it be the supplier or your own warehouse staff.
Warehouse Quality Assurance
The easiest way to manage returns is by working to avoid them altogether. By working to ensure every item that leaves your warehouse is intact and accurate, customers will be much less likely to send the item back. Quality assurance in the warehouse can be tedious, but it’s the best way to ensure customer satisfaction and hold suppliers accountable for products that arrive mishandled or damaged.
Periodic inventory checks or product sampling can help your team spot defects before the item goes up for sale. The durability of some products can’t be determined by just a glance, so random testing of items pulled from the stock is also essential. With a commitment to quality assurance in your inventory management, you can be sure customers are satisfied and knowledgeable about exactly what they’re getting in the mail.
Conclusion
As the eCommerce industry continues to expand, so will the amount of returns sent back to warehouses. For a scaling online store, anticipating and planning for these issues is essential to the brand’s continued success. Streamlined reverse logistics and a proper returns management system can keep your warehouse operations running smoothly while ensuring a satisfying buying experience for your customers.
If you’re looking for a partner to help modernize how your brand handles returns, contact the Software Experts at ShipHero today.
Click HERE to Schedule a Meeting Today
Aaron Rubin, Founder & CEO
ShipHero
About the author: Aaron Rubin is the Founder & CEO of ShipHero. He is responsible for planning and executing the overall vision and strategy of the organization. Rubin’s greatest strengths are leadership, change management, strategic planning and a passion for progression. He is known for having his finger on the pulse of ShipHero’s major initiatives, his entrepreneurial spirit, and keen business acumen. His leadership of ShipHero is grounded in providing excellent customer service that drives improved business operations. His passion for ShipHero comes from the culture and his ability to have an impact on the lives of employees, customers, partners, and investors.
Follow Aaron on Twitter & LinkedIn.
May 20, 2022 | Blog
eCommerce might be more popular than ever, but the industry is still relatively young. That means plenty of changes are underway as brands continue adapting to the future of retail.
Recent retail trends have skewed toward making supply chain unpredictability more manageable. Nearly every eCommerce brand has had to navigate surging orders, carrier delays or warehouse bottlenecks in recent years. By implementing new shipping strategies and investing in the latest fulfillment technology, brands have settled into the new normal and are better positioned for the future of retail.
Same-Day Delivery Strategies
Keeping up with the competition is tricky in a fast-paced market like eCommerce. Major brands have shifted customer expectations to the point that same-day or next-day delivery is thought of as the norm.
Solving this problem might sound expensive, but with a few relatively minor adjustments to your brand’s fulfillment process, you can cut costs while providing a speedy delivery option.
Flexible supply chain
One of the most prominent retail industry trends has been brands prioritizing a flexible supply chain, or the ability to quickly adapt to a changing logistics environment. Traditional warehouses that operated under the same conditions for years before the onset of COVID-19 were caught off guard when the workload for carriers, warehouse staff and product suppliers suddenly changed.
Avoiding these bottlenecks is essential for maintaining a base of happy customers, leading to new strategies in fulfillment. Curb-side pickup, for example, emerged as a means of relieving some of the pressure on warehouse staff by having customers pick up orders from the warehouse or storefront themselves. With a lower output requirement, warehouse workers can maintain a steady output without the threat of overwhelming fulfillment requirements.
Automated Warehouse Technology
An important piece of the flexible supply chain puzzle is technology. Whether it’s wearable tech that tracks warehouse progress, customizable robotics or warehouse management software, retail in 2022 is turning to innovation as a shipping solution.
In a retail environment that can sometimes be volatile, cutting costs and staying efficient is essential. Modern fulfillment software solutions can optimize inventory management, suggest pick and pack strategies and provide real-time carrier rates.
Smart warehouse technologies have also gained momentum as a retail trend in 2022. Modern wearable technology tracks packages throughout a facility, while allowing warehouse staff to complete multiple tasks from a single location. Other tools like automated label printers or intelligent conveyor systems help cut down on the errors that come with the manual picking process, reducing costly misships or product returns.
Social Sales Channels
Social commerce is one of the fastest growing retail channels in 2022, turning Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin into the latest battleground for online retailers.
In addition to opening your products to more potential customers, social media fosters the interactive aspect of your eCommerce store. By interacting with your products online before making a purchase, customers get a deeper connection with your brand. With a level of trust and familiarity between the buyer and seller, customers are able to make informed purchases and are more likely to return in the future.
Let’s take a look at some emerging interactive retail trends that can help provide a rich customer experience.
Livestream Shopping
Livestream shopping is when customers view a live video of someone else interacting with a product before deciding on a purchase. While they’re commonly featured on social media platforms, livestream shopping can be hosted via webinars or direct video calls with customers.
Unboxing videos, for example, are a popular form of livestream marketing where brands send streamers products and have them open the packages live. The audience then gets to see the host’s unfiltered reaction to the item, giving them an authentic review of the product’s pros and cons. By providing a link to the product on the stream’s page, customers can immediately decide whether to place an order.
Livestream shopping can also be utilized to showcase a brick-and-mortar store. Having a host walk through the aisles of a store or warehouse can give customers an idea for what to expect when they show up in-person. If an exciting new line of products comes in, featuring them through an Instagram or Facebook live stream can help drum up interest and advertise what your brand has to offer.
AR & VR Shopping
Virtual reality and augmented reality, or VR and AR, is a rising media technology that has a lot of online retail potential. According to Zion Market Research, the augmented reality market is expected to grow to $128 billion by 2028.
The immersive and highly interactive environment that AR provides lends itself to eCommerce. Customers can try on clothing, interact with products or even test drive vehicles with this technology. Ikea was one of the first major brands to adopt augmented reality with their Ikea Place App, which allows customers to view how pieces of furniture would look in their existing room before making a purchase.
Conclusion
Online retail might be going through significant changes, but that opens up the potential for new and creative strategies that cut costs on fulfillment while generating new customers.
If you’re looking for a partner to help modernize your warehouse and help scale your brand, contact the Software Experts at ShipHero today.
Click HERE to Schedule a Meeting Today
Aaron Rubin, Founder & CEO
ShipHero
About the author: Aaron Rubin is the Founder & CEO of ShipHero. He is responsible for planning and executing the overall vision and strategy of the organization. Rubin’s greatest strengths are leadership, change management, strategic planning and a passion for progression. He is known for having his finger on the pulse of ShipHero’s major initiatives, his entrepreneurial spirit, and keen business acumen. His leadership of ShipHero is grounded in providing excellent customer service that drives improved business operations. His passion for ShipHero comes from the culture and his ability to have an impact on the lives of employees, customers, partners, and investors.
Follow Aaron on Twitter & LinkedIn.
May 13, 2022 | Blog
The past few years have permanently changed the way customers shop and interact with brands. With so many purchases happening online, brick and mortar storefronts have had to take a fresh look at their role in the retail cycle.
By providing options like BOPIS and employing omnichannel marketing, brands have found a way to leverage their physical storefronts for a better customer experience.
Brick-and-mortar adaptation
Despite the sudden rise of online shopping, most buying still takes place at physical locations. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, eCommerce only made up roughly 13% of all retail purchases at the height of the pandemic.
Rather than commit fully to one side or the other, brands have adapted their brick-and-mortar locations to work hand-in-hand with online stores. The new prominence of eCommerce can be leveraged and integrated into the shopping experience to create a more convenient buying option for customers. One of the key strategies retailers have employed is the “buy online, pickup in-store” model, or BOPIS.
Advantages of BOPIS
BOPIS allows customers to make a purchase from their computer or smartphone and set a pickup time that is most convenient for them.
Rather than manage two separate sales avenues, this approach helps integrate digital and real-world retail spaces to support each other. The sudden popularity of BOPIS might have come from necessity, but it has proven advantages for retailers in the long term.
Customer Convenience
For businesses with an existing brick and mortar location, BOPIS bridges the gap between stores and their digital platforms while providing a competitive advantage. These days, customers expect their online orders to arrive in a matter of days, if not quicker. Most stores can’t guarantee such speedy delivery, and BOPIS provides another avenue for customer convenience.
The ability to offer expedited shipping is challenging from a logistics point of view, but with an established brick-and mortar location, the process can be much easier. By connecting the digital and physical sides of your business, your brand can provide a seamless shopping experience that won’t put additional strain on your shipping process.
Easier Fulfillment
Speaking of the shipping process, BOPIS could even reduce the demand on your warehouse staff. Customers that are eager to get their orders quickly might be more inclined to pick up the item themselves.
This could reduce the amount of output required by your warehouse, helping avoid expensive shipping bottlenecks and carrier delays when order activity picks up.
Inventory management
As online orders continue to increase, brick-and-mortar stores can even double as extra inventory space. In an effort to shorten delivery times, some brands have begun converting existing storefront to curb-side-pickup locations. These facilities are redesigned as storage centers that prioritize order fulfillment, rather than in-store shopping.
As inventory shortages continue to pose challenges for eCommerce brands, real-world locations have become extremely valuable for anyone looking to simplify last-mile logistics.
In-Store Activity
Not only does a BOPIS option make things easier for the customer, but the added incentive to visit a brick and mortar location could boost foot traffic through the store.
Getting more customers through the door via BOPIS could lead to additional in-store sales, while fostering a better, real-world connection with customers.
How to Implement BOPIS
Integrating a pickup option is an important step to take, but it isn’t as easy as adding a button to your online store. Let’s take a look at some of the considerations you should make before you implement this strategy.
Visibility
One of the major challenges in implementing BOPIS is syncing up online inventory with your actual store. Shoppers expect the products available online to be in-stock at the store nearest to them, so introducing BOPIS without an inventory management strategy could cause confusion down the road.
Merging BOPIS into your retail cycle can be made much easier with a dependable warehouse management software. By getting instant inventory alerts and automating stock updates for your online store, you can be sure your customers are able to make purchases without an issue.
Clear Customer Support
As the owner of a brick-and-mortar location, “pickup in-store” might sound pretty straightforward, but customers won’t be as familiar with your store’s layout. It’s essential to provide customers with instructions on where exactly to go when picking up an order.
By explaining the process at the point of purchase and posting clear signage in the store, you can avoid unnecessary confusion and customer frustration when they choose the BOPIS option.
Omnichannel
One of the key strategies brands have adopted to maximize the potential of their brick-and-mortar locations is known as omnichannel. Omnichannel is an approach to marketing that allows customers to access products on any digital platform or on any device in addition to their physical storefronts.
For example, while some eCommerce brands might offer a product on their website only, omnichannel gives customers the chance to find products and complete purchases via social media, smartphone apps, or at the store’s physical location. This approach helps foster the connection with customers by providing the option to purchase products in the way that they prefer.
Conclusion
Some might see brick-and-mortar stores as a relic of the past, as eCommerce emerges as the first buying choice for a growing number of customers. However, an established storefront can be a powerful tool when working in conjunction with your digital platforms.
By adapting to the current market and providing options like BOPIS and curb-side pickup, brands can leverage their real-world locations to provide a much more efficient consumer experience.
If you’re looking for a partner to help connect your online store and maximize your brand’s shipping potential, contact the Software Experts at ShipHero today.
Click HERE to Schedule a Meeting Today
Aaron Rubin, Founder & CEO
ShipHero
About the author: Aaron Rubin is the Founder & CEO of ShipHero. He is responsible for planning and executing the overall vision and strategy of the organization. Rubin’s greatest strengths are leadership, change management, strategic planning and a passion for progression. He is known for having his finger on the pulse of ShipHero’s major initiatives, his entrepreneurial spirit, and keen business acumen. His leadership of ShipHero is grounded in providing excellent customer service that drives improved business operations. His passion for ShipHero comes from the culture and his ability to have an impact on the lives of employees, customers, partners, and investors.
Follow Aaron on Twitter & LinkedIn.
May 6, 2022 | Blog
The holidays are right around the corner, which means online shopping is once again set to spike, reminding eCommerce brands of the importance of inventory management.
Keeping customers happy during peak season is essential for long term success, and inventory management has quickly become a major hurdle standing in the way of that goal. Over-stocking unsold items, unexpected supply shortages and surging online orders can easily set you back and leave potential customers with no choice but to shop elsewhere.
Let’s take a look at some of the most common causes of inventory frustration during peak season and what strategies can help make Q4 a little easier to navigate.
Limited Warehouse Space
One of the root causes of inventory shortage is the scarcity of actual shelving space. Before peak season comes around, it’s important to understand your existing warehouse capacity and how an increase in orders could impact your product’s availability. Warehouse space is in high demand. Even during the slower shipping season, eCommerce brands have struggled to find adequate storage space for their products.
As this demand increases, so will the cost of reserving space. Even if you end up selling more during peak season, those gains could be offset by rising operational costs.
Difficulty Forecasting Orders
One of the toughest challenges of peak season is the ability to accurately forecast the amount of stock you’ll need to keep orders flowing. Due to the recent spike in online shopping, brands can generally anticipate an increase in warehouse output. Predicting exactly how much additional stock will be needed, however, can be much more difficult.
Accurate demand forecasting can be a major advantage during peak season. When it comes to inventory management, a clear idea of storage needs can help avoid problems like overstock and depletion. Before this year’s peak shipping season arrives, it’s a good idea to have a system in place that leverages data from previous years and gauges the amount of stock you’ll need to keep customers satisfied.
On-Demand Warehousing
One solution that has worked for some brands with inventory management issues has been on-demand warehousing. On-demand warehousing allows companies to temporarily rent excess inventory space to store products as needed.
While this strategy can help secure additional storage space, you might sacrifice some degree of visibility and control over how your products are shipped. The companies that provide the additional inventory space usually don’t complete the fulfillment process themselves. That step is outsourced to a 3PL, which could potentially leave you in the dark about the status of your orders.
On-demand warehousing 3PLs negotiate on your behalf with warehouses in their network to find the most efficient and cost effective storage solution for your brand. With the supply chain continuing to cause unexpected shipping interruptions, this gives you a flexible and customized inventory management strategy.
Just In Time Inventory Management
Rather than expand their inventory storage space, some brands have opted to leverage their existing warehouse by employing just in time inventory management.
Just in time inventory management, or JIT, is a strategy that involves importing goods to the warehouse as they are needed, minimizing some of the constraints of limited storage space. If an order is canceled, or certain products don’t meet the expected demand, those unwanted products won’t sit around the warehouse taking up valuable shelf space.
JIT can help make shipping more efficient, but it does open you up to some amount of risk if the day-to-day fulfillment process runs off track. A successful JIT strategy relies on accurate order forecasting, reliable suppliers and adequate staff training to keep the fulfillment cycle running smoothly. If a supplier falls behind and can’t get your products to the warehouse on time, you’ll be out of stock and unable to fulfill orders.
Real-Time Reporting
One of the most important tools to have on hand when peak season rolls around is data. Finding new efficiency opportunities and storage solutions is much easier with the ability to track all the facets of how your warehouse operates. The right warehouse management software can recommend slotting strategies and anticipate inventory shortages long before they impact the customer.
If you’re outsourcing your fulfillment with a 3PL, visibility is key. Traditional warehouses might not be equipped to provide real-time updates on inventory levels, so you’ll need a fulfillment partner that’s up to the task.
With the assurance of automatic updates from your fulfillment service provider, you can head into Q4 with full knowledge of when to replenish your stock.
Conclusion
Inventory management might be a challenge, but that doesn’t mean it has to hold back your eCommerce brand. With the right strategy, warehouse tools and 3PLs on your side, peak shipping season can be a profitable success.
If you’re looking for a shipping partner to help optimize your approach to inventory management, contact the Fulfillment Experts at ShipHero today.
Click HERE to Schedule a Meeting Today
