Surviving The Holiday Rush With Your 3PL: Meet Your Consumer Demand with The Right Fulfillment
Reading Time: 13 minutes Surviving The Holiday Rush: Meet The Consumer Demand with The Right 3PL
The holiday season is here, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to predict what will happen. To survive this chaotic holiday rush, retailers must understand their consumer demand as well as how much they can handle concerning fulfilling the consumer demand. In other words, retailers must anticipate consumer demand for their products and have the right fulfillment systems in place.
It is recommended that retailers partner with a 3rd party logistics provider to ensure they can fulfill orders efficiently while avoiding over-ordering or under-fulfilling inventory levels.
As the last mile delivery has put pressure on capacity, service, and pricing. The 3PL industry is now facing an unprecedented level of consumer demand that might lead to a holiday rush this year. To combat these issues, it’s important to meet customer expectations with better fulfillment during peak times so you can keep your margins intact while still delivering quality products in time for Christmas Eve.
To compete with consumer demand, 3PLs should meet the consumer’s needs as best as they can. This means that it is important for them to understand what customers want and how their businesses will be impacted by a high-pressure holiday season.
What is a 3PL?
A 3PL is a business partner that handles fulfillment for your company. They provide the services of warehousing, picking, packing, and shipping items to consumers to reduce costs and increase efficiency while fulfilling customer orders.
Your consumer demand can be met with the right 3PL if you are willing to meet their needs. If you are a business that relies on fulfillment by your 3PL, it’s important to make sure the right things get delivered. The holiday season is always hectic and can be overwhelming for businesses that rely on their 3PLs to help with customer service.
The best way to avoid making mistakes in getting gifts for customers is to have an adequate number of employees available throughout the year so that they can identify trends early enough before planning orders accordingly.
Furthermore, 3PLs are a key component of global supply chain management for large companies and work to meet consumer demand by leveraging operational efficiencies. They operate under SLAs that guarantee efficiency in the fulfillment process through the use of bulk-purchasing programs or technology integrations with other systems like ERP.
These services help reduce costs and increase margins while minimizing risks associated with inventory levels, stockouts, shrinkage rates, returns processes, etc., ensuring that consumer demand is met without compromising quality.
3PLs are also known as third-party logistics providers. They provide an order management system that helps streamline operations and is beneficial for any company looking to reduce errors in the fulfillment process.
Order Management System (OMS) provides a seamless customer experience by eliminating common issues such as miscommunication, mismatches of orders, lost packages, or damaged goods.
What can a 3PL do for me?
3PL providers help companies manage logistics, supply chain, and inventory. They provide 4PL capabilities like end-to-end supply chain management and warehousing services with the ability to perform various services such as pick and pack, subassembly, fulfillment, eCommerce dropshipping. Specialty services include foreign trade operations (import/export through customs), marketing, and call center services.
Key Performance Indicators
Businesses are realizing that providing a positive experience to their customers is not only the right thing to do, but it also impacts business growth. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are some of the ways businesses can measure how well they’re doing in meeting consumer demand and maintaining a positive experience for their customers.
Customer service response time
Keep track of the time it takes to resolve an order fully. This will give you a better idea of how well your customer service team is functioning during peak times. Companies can save time during the holiday season with 3PL services. Contacting customer service representatives is easier, and they are more receptive to customers because of limited resources.
According to the 2015 Holiday Shopping Survey, 44% of consumers were dissatisfied with their holiday shopping experience. The study also found that customer service response time is a major factor in creating satisfaction or dissatisfaction among customers.
The customer service response time is a major factor when selecting 3PL services. To prepare for these major sales, it can be crucial to have a quick and reliable service provider.
A 3PL is a third-party logistics provider. They can help you manage inventory and shipment by outsourcing your inbound, and outbound freight shipping needs to the best providers of service. With this, you will be able to ensure that customers are having a festive shopping experience with minimal stress on your staff or financial resources.
Order fulfillment centers are overseen by customer service experts who can deal with any issues that arise. This ensures your orders will be delivered to you safely and quickly.
Time from dock to stock
The key performance indicators for fulfillment operations are the time from dock to stock, pick, pack, and ship. Fulfillment operations should focus on this aspect of the process rather than inventory levels or returns. A pallet is used to transfer a truckload of products into inventory but will not generate a return when it is not loaded in.
The time from dock to stock is an important part of the inventory process. Products that linger on a pallet without being logged into inventory can cause no return or lost sales. The out-of-stock items are marked as “out of stock” because they’re not in the warehouse and don’t have any use for them until someone comes along and logs them in again, which takes away their negative impact on other customers’ purchases.
Retailers should stock products with extended shelf life in 2021. The 48-hour dock-to-stock guarantee will allow retailers the flexibility they need to maintain an adequate supply of goods for consumers and improve their service levels.
3PL fulfillment companies are evaluated by how quickly the company can receive your inventory. Longer shelf life means there is universal consumer demand for a product, which in turn increases its profitability.
The time it takes for a product to move from dock to store is an important part of the supply chain. When products are popular, that means companies have more control over how they’re marketed and sold.
Same-day shipping
Same-day shipping is important to keep your key performance indicators up during the holidays. You want to have service on hand for consumers during this period.
When you are looking for a way to increase your sales, it would be wise to partner with an order fulfillment center that has the capability of same-day shipping. This allows customers who place their orders early enough in the day before they close out business hours to receive them on time and boost profits.
As a lower-volume retailer, you may want to leverage the 3PL’s negotiated shipping rates. The carrier will also be versed in holiday shipping deadlines for each carrier and special requirements like delivering oversized items or products containing hazardous chemicals such as lithium-ion batteries.
The high-order accuracy rate
The key performance indicators of a 3PL are order accuracy, price predictability, and customer experience. Meeting these KPIs while also keeping up with the holiday rush can be difficult; however, companies can do this by using dimensions and packaging preferences to increase order accuracy and automated sorting and box selection algorithms: consistent, predictable fulfillment pricing and good customer experience.
The high order accuracy rate of this company is the result of their customer expectations. They understand that customers will be disappointed if they do not receive what they ordered, and so it is important to process orders quickly and efficiently.
The high order accuracy rate of the company is a selling point. They also offer same-day fulfillment, which is an important factor for those who place large orders and need them to be delivered as soon as possible.
Furthermore, a 3PL fulfillment company that consistently misses shipping deadlines isn’t providing the service you pay for.
Streamlined return process
Key performance indicators can help businesses monitor their service levels, return rates, customer satisfaction, and the number of orders. These measurements are often used for shipping companies that handle returns.
Good return and exchange policies are essential to your success. Ensure that the process is easy for customers and that they can easily access information about your products online or in-store.
Return rate
Retailers need to be able to monitor their deliveries. Connecting with carriers and ERP systems can provide key metrics that retailers will need to understand how the holiday rush is going. Warehouse managers also need an integrated WMS that breaks down information silos, which would help all parts of the supply chain work together more efficiently.
The return rate is a strategy that helps retailers overcome logistical challenges. Connect, Automate, Rate Shop framework simplifies the process of ecommerce logistics by applying automated pick jobs and order verification processes with a small parcel shipping platform like Small Parcel Suite.
How much picking errors and returns are costing us?
There are many ways to improve returns. Some of these include using carrier apps that allow workers to scan and pack orders before shipping or implementing a return process in place with visual aids for easy understanding.
If you’re a business owner who wants to optimize your shipping costs, then rate shopping can help. We offer a free demo of our powerful optimization tools that will allow you to connect with the most affordable rates in minutes.
To increase the return rate, a company must take care of their customer from start to finish. They do this by working with product, marketing, and sales teams to create effective strategies.
Inventory demand forecasting tools
The average consumer purchase is $35, and they make a total of about ten purchases in two weeks. This means that the holiday season can be expensive for retailers, but it can also be profitable. Retailers need to forecast consumer demand and plan their inventory levels accordingly to prevent overspending on manufacturing or warehousing.
Inventory consumer demand forecasting tools are a type of software that helps businesses forecast their inventory needs. Usually, these types of software have been used in stores to track when products will be sold out and replace them with new ones.
Inventory consumer demand forecasting tools help businesses plan for upcoming promotions to better manage the huge influx of consumer demand. Businesses can think through planned events and prepare accordingly while also increasing their profit margin.
Inventory shrinkage
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are a set of metrics that help measure the success of an organization. One such indicator is inventory shrinkage, which can be measured in terms of percentage or cost to reduce this amount.
The company’s inventory shrinkage allowance is $3,000. This means that if the company has a negative amount of inventory left over after selling, it would have to pay out $3,000 for any lost items. It may be beneficial to find a Fulfillment Company with zero or low shrinkage allowance to reduce this cost and avoid high losses on product returns.
The inventory management software helps you identify slow-moving items in your store that are high in storage costs. Besides, Inventory shrinkage is one of the most common problems faced by merchants, and it can be a big setback for businesses.
Inventory shrinkage occurs when there is a decrease in the number of products sold. For example, if the company has been running a promotion and then needs to discontinue it, it should bundle its remaining inventory for promotions or send out reorder notifications before transferring excess inventory to other warehouses.
Custom packaging options
Packages can be customized to meet specific consumer demands and support brand recognition. Custom packaging options include eco-friendly solutions with personalized branding.
There are a variety of options for the packaging, including custom unboxing experiences and inventory placed closer to customers.
One of the most popular options for custom packaging is to send your product in a box or bag. However, if you’re looking to ship large products such as furniture and appliances, it’s worth exploring other options like shipping pallets and shrink-wrapping.
Premium customer support
The holiday season is a busy and stressful time. When you have successful customer support, it will help to reduce the stress levels of your staff members, so they can provide better service for your customers.
Key performance indicators can be used as benchmarks by measuring how well your company is doing during this period.
This article talks about how 3PL companies can provide premium customer support. They have a proven track record of providing quick answers and solutions when they have an issue or question related to their services.
Many companies offer premium customer support, and some even guarantee response times of less than forty minutes. However, there are still many instances in which responses take longer than expected.
Strategies for meeting this year’s holiday surge demand
The recent conditions over the last year have been hard on Home Depot. To combat their supply chain woes, they purchased their own freight forwarding ship to help with distribution and inventory management.
The holiday season is a time of year when there are simply too many items to manage for all retailers. It’s the perfect storm where creative problem-solving and strategic planning will be necessary to meet this year’s holiday surge in consumer demand.
It starts by making sure that your fulfillment centers have enough stock, which can help you get through peak times without running out or breaking down due to slow shipping services. You also need to make sure that you’re working with vendors who understand what it takes to meet the consumer demand of this season.
The best thing you can do is make sure that your company starts planning for this year’s holiday rush today, which will help prevent any last-minute surprises when it comes time to close down in 2021.
Negotiating expanded terms with vendors
As the holiday season approaches, there are many things retailers have to do to keep up with increased consumer demand. One of the most important steps is negotiating expanded terms with vendors for better and more efficient fulfillment and supply chain services.
A smaller company is better off negotiating an expanded term with a vendor. A larger company has more robust systems and greater features to offer, but they are also less flexible in their negotiations when looking for a 3PL. Experience matters because it creates trust among the parties involved.
When negotiating expanded terms with vendors, the customer experience depends on what your brand promises. Larger 3PLs might not be able to offer that level of personalization as smaller ones can. There are other types of suppliers out there who may be valuable partners for you instead of just another supplier.
Stocking inventory with an added shelf life
Retailers should look to stock products with extended shelf life to meet this year’s holiday surge demand. The difficulty comes in balancing these types of products with seasonal holiday trends. Some big-name corporations can drive those holiday trends based on the power of their marketing spend, but retailers may need more time and effort spent procuring agile inventory if they want to keep up with those trends.
Stocking inventory with an added shelf life can help reduce shipping costs and keep inventory closer to customers.
Proactively adjusting warehouse and cargo space
Warehouse space and cargo space are not just something that can be taken for granted. Securing adequate logistical infrastructure is the first step in meeting this year’s holiday surge demand. When COVID-19 caused supply shortages, retailers were forced to cancel orders or dedicate their warehouse space to more urgent needs.
To ensure a smooth transition into the holiday season, companies should contract warehouse space now. There is a high chance that there might be shortages of storage and cargo spaces in warehouses due to increased demand before Christmas.
Finding alternate supply lines
The holiday season will be one of the most challenging shopping seasons. There are new challenges to meet this year, including a 300% increase in online grocery sales and an increased demand for food at home.
By understanding supply chains, retailers can identify the right inventory levels at the right time. This also helps retailers react in real-time and provide greater flexibility for their product origin to store shelves.
Why use 3PL e-commerce fulfillment during the holiday season?
The holiday season is a time for celebration and giving. The 3PL e-commerce fulfillment evaluates the amount of demand that your company has to ensure that you can meet your consumer’s needs and also save time and money. This allows businesses to accomplish more, grow faster, and save stress during this busy period of the year.
If you have been looking for a service partner to help with your business during these busy times, take advantage of 3PL partners who are able to offer their services throughout the entire holiday season.
3PL partners know that when they work with you, your company will be able to handle more orders and prepare for future growth.
Comparing a 3PL provider with an in-house facility can help you save on labor and materials while also increasing your revenue. A 3PL service may be the best option for e-commerce fulfillment during this holiday season, as they have been proven to work well with companies of all sizes.
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