Retail Fulfillment eCommerce has changed the face of retail forever. Your customers have more options to price shop brands and expect delivery within days of placing an order. The challenges to effectively and efficiently deliver your products into the hands of your customers quickly and accurately has never been more critical to the long-term profitability and success of brands across all industries. Your supply chain can be a competitive differentiator over your competition or a weak link that is costing you customers if managed incorrectly. A flexible and technology enabled fulfillment supply chain network is a must-have for all brands. For omni-channel brands, supplying today's multi-location retailers can be a challenge to even the most sophisticated wholesalers, retailers, manufacturers and distributors. Proactive management of retailer compliance manuals, vendor routing guides, OTIF, MABD and fill rate score card management can make or break a brand with big box retailers. Working with a third-party logistics company that has a demonstrated understanding of the requirements of omni-channel retail fulfillment and distribution should be high on your checklist when evaluating your current warehouse or evaluating a new 3PL partner. WHAT KIND OF SERVICES CAN A RETAIL FULFILLMENT CENTER PROVIDE? A retail fulfillment and distribution center can provide many things beyond the basic tasks of getting an order from the warehouse to the customer. Depending on your industry, it can be more effective and efficient to have products prepared in specific ways during the fulfillment process. These value-added services include: Packaging and Kitting Product Display Assembly Rework, Inspection and Testing Retail Sales Packaging Ticketing, Labeling, and Bar Coding WHY IS INVENTORY MANAGEMENT SO IMPORTANT FOR RETAIL FULFILLMENT? Poor inventory management can wreck your bottom line and the quality of service you are able to offer your customers. Even if your sector doesn’t typically maintain a high volume of SKUs, stale products, and inaccurate numbers can quickly become a problem. Keeping inventory levels lean and fill rates balanced can maximize the overall efficiency within your distribution center. To achieve this, item activity level reporting from a sophisticated warehouse management system can help to identify slow-moving products and signal other inventory-related changes that can be assessed. Active inventory management allows your fulfillment provider to maintain its slotting plan appropriately, allowing for more efficient picking. HOW CAN A RETAIL FULFILLMENT CENTER IMPROVE THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE? Because customers have more brand options than ever have before, and they expect low cost, if not free shipping, with faster delivery times, the customer experience you provide through your fulfillment operations has never been more important to the success of a brand. It only takes one poor experience for your brand to lose a customer for life. With accurate inventory management, a frictionless ordering process, and timely delivery with real-time visibility, your brand will be able to effectively compete in today’s retail environment. WHY ARE REVERSE LOGISTICS SO IMPORTANT FOR RETAIL FULFILLMENT? Returns are an expensive and inefficient process for brands to manage. With the rise of eCommerce, return rates of 20%-30% are not uncommon. However, a 3PL partner can often turn reverse logistics into an opportunity to mitigate costs and improve product recovery through value added services. The ability to efficiently inspect, re-condition and restock saleable items, while creating a frictionless customer experience is vital for brands to thrive WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF A 3PL FOR RETAIL ORDER FULFILLMENT? A third-party logistics provider, 3PL, can be a tremendous source of expertise for any retail brand. Instead of investing in the expensive overhead to build and maintain a nationwide warehouse infrastructure, a 3PL can provide the resources, expertise, equipment, technology and facilities to enable accurate multi-site order fulfillment. Through our ISO quality program, Barrett manages and maintains a portfolio of current retailer routing guides for our customers in a centralized content management database. Customer Service Specialists are highly trained and responsible for administering the routing requirements and ensuring retailer specific work instructions are followed and communicated to the warehouse in order to meet compliance labeling requirements and ship dates. In our network of shared and dedicated facilities, Barrett services over 150 major retailers with direct-to-distribution center, direct-to-store, and drop ship programs. We are also managing door-to-door Must Arrive by Dates (MABD/OTIF) and providing indirect & direct EDI communication with compliant G1, G10, UCC128, SCC18 SCC14 case labeling. FEATURED E-COMMERCE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT: OPTIMIZING ORDER FULFILLMENT WITH A 3PL By 2021, over 230 million people in the United States will be an online shopper in one way or another. While this number is staggering, there are still some barriers that keep people from shopping online. Read More → SOLVING THE EXPENSIVE PROBLEM OF E-COMMERCE RETURNS WITH REVERSE LOGISTICS In 2018, retailers in the United States lost over $351 billion in sales to merchandise returns. The convenience of e-commerce return options will force this number to climb, and retailers must determine how best to meet this complex challenge. Not only is mitigating the missed sales important, but your return process can impact your brand's reputation. Read More → RETAIL LOGISTICS: 3 WAYS TO ADD VALUE WITHIN YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN Competition across all sectors is higher today than ever before. The internet and highly sophisticated supply chains have made the world a smaller place meaning that consumers have more new options, and demands on a daily basis. This continuing trend means that businesses need to find ways to differentiate themselves, and added value remains a top solution to this challenge. This means the supply chain in any organization has an opportunity to become a competitive advantage by including value-added features. Read More → 15 Freedom Way Franklin, MA 02038 | 508-553-8800 | sales@barrettdistribution.com | ©2020 Barrett Distribution. Barrett Distribution Centers uses cookies to give you a better experience on our website. By continuing to use our site, you are agreeing to the use of cookies as set in our Cookie Policy.