As this month's Black Friday sales approach, retailers need to have a clear plan to handle this peak period and ensure they are running at levels that keep customers happy. Ensuring fast delivery times is therefore of vital importance in keeping customers informed about day-to-day deals.
From eStore Logistics founder and CEO Leigh Williams.
Ecommerce has grown off the charts during Covid and more shoppers than ever will go online for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This year, for example, customers of eStore Logistics sold 89% more orders in July 2020 than in July 2019, in August 2020 92% more orders than in August 2019 and in September 2020 75% more orders than in September 2019. However, we are forecasting an increase from 200% to 300% on this Black Friday and in the Christmas season compared to the regular season volume of 2019.
Consumer enthusiasm is high nationwide. The economy in Victoria has opened again. Restrictions on Step Three were put in place on October 28th, allowing Melbournians to leave home and reopen for no reason. Before retailers call the cash register, however, they need to plan for critical factors such as staff, warehouse equipment, warehouse and warehouse capacity, and space utilization.
Not planning?
For retailers of all categories, the key to success is balancing customer service with planning and forecasting. For example, fulfillment operations don't always get the attention they need, but the ability to offer faster, more efficient, and cheaper deliveries is a critical step in building a strong customer base.
The same principles apply to brick-and-mortar retailers with an e-commerce offering. You need to meet customer requirements while ensuring that the level of service remains high and that there is no backlog.
Our experience processing more than 20 million orders per year for Australia's leading e-commerce and omnichannel retailers such as Kogan.com, Temple & Webster, Patagonia and Hairhouse has shown that an over forecast is safer than an under forecast.
Careful preparation enables retailers to manage sales at both peak and holiday seasons by analyzing customer buying behavior, developing offers and prices, and promoting digital marketing.
Not only are retailers following the traditional route of investing capital in their own warehousing and logistics, they can also prepare for Black Friday with a few simple steps:
- Review sales projections and share them with your third party logistics provider (3PL) when you outsource your warehouse operations. This avoids overfilling or underfilling your warehouse.
- Use data to predict this peak time. Combine historical sales order data with forecast demand to estimate your daily sales order volume for Black Friday, Christmas Summit, and Boxing Day and New Year sales.
- Based on your business forecast, calculate the additional staff needed to meet the inbound and outbound processing requirements. Support these calculations from a budget perspective with benchmarking work rates for known work profiles.
- To meet increasing customer expectations, make sure there is enough equipment available to meet the highest volume days. For online retail warehouses, this ranges from traditional tools like high frequency scanners (RF scanners), packaging benches, forklifts, pallets, pallet lifters and picking trolleys to innovations like automation and robotics.
- Retailers can expect to need additional space for pallets / shelves / bins to maintain additional inventory. To manage inbound processing, start with the volume and profile of the supplier deliveries and determine the number of expected full container loads (FCLs), pallet and box deliveries. Consider the number of storage units (SKUs) and the total number of units per incoming supplier shipment, as well as any special rework requirements.
While e-commerce has added convenience and choice, retailers need to look beyond that to maintain customer care and encourage positive interactions like referrals and word of mouth. With retail emerging from tough economic times, business success depends on customer satisfaction, goodwill, and loyalty.
eStore Logistics operates four fulfillment centers across Australia equipped with AI-powered stock picking robots that support a 4pm cut-off for same-day fulfillment and same-day delivery at low cost.
About Leigh Williams
Leigh Williams is the founder and CEO of eStore Logistics, Australia's largest e-commerce fulfillment provider. Leigh founded eStore in 2008 before completing a double degree in Business and Information Systems and then working as a consultant at Accenture and IBM. Leigh took advantage of his IT background to develop a world-class, technology-driven 3PL that specializes in serving the online retail industry.
About eStore Logistics
eStore Logistics is Australia's largest e-commerce-centric fulfillment provider serving complex online order fulfillment profiles and volumes for retailers. The company leverages state-of-the-art technology, automation and logistics capabilities to provide a world-class warehouse and fulfillment solution for e-commerce and omni-channel retailers. 
The company has five locations across Australia and fulfills more than 20 million orders each year for Australia's top e-commerce and omnichannel retailers, including Kogan.com, Temple & Webster, Patagonia and Hairhouse. eStore Logistics recently unveiled a robotic automation solution that supports a three hour delivery service for customers.
