It’s easy to think of fulfillment as comprising the final steps in the retail supply chain. But the truth is that the conditions faced in warehouses and delivery vehicles are determined much earlier in the supply chain than the last mile. Supercharging fulfillment works in concert with accelerating plans, amplifying experiences and building trust to orchestrate a synchronized supply chain via an end-to-end approach.
Since fulfillment represents the most cost-intensive stage of the retail supply chain, it’s beneficial for supply chain professionals to consider the margin-widening powers of an end-to-end approach that optimizes the supply chain in a holistic, rather than siloed, way. By optimizing fulfillment, exponential value in the retail supply chain can be unlocked.
Uniting people and technology to serve consumers faster, more efficiently
It’s important to realize that exponential value can’t be unleashed by adopting a fragmented patchwork of integrated point solutions. Rather, the entire retail supply chain, from planning to execution, needs to be harmonized around a singular outcome. Adopting a customer-centric approach helps achieve this.
While the consumer has always been at the center of the retail supply chain, recent fulfillment trends indicate that customer-centricity has never been more essential to success. Trends like omni-channel ordering, automated inventory management, real-time order visibility and same-day delivery emerged in an era when most customers spent their days at home. But the demand for these capabilities has not diminished. Faster fulfillment times and higher consumer expectations are here to stay.
Satisfying consumer demand for faster delivery, while improving internal efficiencies and handling disruptions seamlessly, remains a high priority for supply chain professionals. To operate a truly customer-centric supply chain, retailers need to focus on creating a unified ecosystem that runs on a common platform. The use of a shared platform ensures universal visibility of the same data, and access to the same resources, across the end-to-end supply chain.
With platform-based, advanced digital solutions widely available, supercharging fulfillment for a more efficient and customer-centric supply chain isn’t just a great idea — it’s a tangible reality.
The impact of warehousing and resourcing trends on retail supply chains
The seemingly universal demand for more efficient order fulfillment has effected profound changes in every silo of the supply chain. Many of these changes are positive, while others create new challenges. For instance, new fulfillment modes increase flexibility today — but they also mean increasingly dissatisfied shoppers are forced to share precious aisle space with in-store pickers, as well as navigate roads that are more congested with delivery vehicles. Similarly, store staff are encountering their own frustrations about sourcing items to fulfil online orders, in addition to their existing responsibilities.
Another flexible fulfillment challenge? The retail labor shortages that characterized 2023 are not letting up anytime soon. According to a report by the National Retail Federation (NRF), there were four million retail job openings in the 12 months before January 2024. “That shortage of workers is not likely to ease dramatically in 2024,” warns the NRF. “Earmarking capital for technology that aids in scheduling, hiring, and training is suggested as a solution to this challenge, which is not set to be resolved soon.”
Overall, it’s clear that supply chain professionals must prepare for a future with continued disruptions to labor availability in warehousing and resourcing. However, with the right end-to-end digital solutions in place, being prepared to take on any future disruptions has never been simpler. The answer lies in automation.
Automation is the key to supercharging fulfillment
Automating logistics and warehousing operations can supercharge speed and responsiveness in the retail supply chain, including fulfillment — a transformative power that modern retailers would do well to recognize. When we talk about automation, we’re speaking about a multifaceted realm that goes beyond robotics. Advanced automation merges multiple technologies for smart, independent decision-making. It marks a new era for supply chain management, where machines and algorithms work in harmony to streamline processes like fulfillment from end to end.
By 2025, modern retailers plan to automate 70% of their routine tasks and prioritize investments that will enhance operational efficiency, reduce costs and support higher profits. By adopting automation, retailers can achieve significant improvements in various facets of their operations, including fulfillment:
- Modernized operations and enhanced efficiency. Automation modernizes operations, while enhancing the efficiency and precision of processes. It’s been proven to set new industry standards, reduce costs associated with human labor and errors, and improve the bottom line. Because fulfillment is resource-intensive, it’s a natural target.
- Smarter supply chain operations. Automation facilitates agile and strategic decision-making through data analysis, helping retailers keep pace with rapidly changing market dynamics. They can see fulfillment trends and be ready in advance.
- Future-readiness and resilience. Automation ensures seamless operations and builds resilience against the disruptions that frequently disrupt fulfillment processes. It fosters sustained efficiency, paving the way for future industry leadership.
Supercharge fulfillment with an end-to-end solution
By adopting an end-to-end approach to supply chain optimization, retailers can supercharge fulfillment — and other core competencies — by eliminating siloed thinking and creating universal visibility into enterprise data streams. For a more resilient and profitable supply chain, retailers must consider how to fuel fulfillment via automation, for a more fulfilling customer experience.
Schedule a strategy call with a Blue Yonder expert today. They’ll explain how simple it is to implement and scale an end-to-end solution that transforms the supply chain from a disparate cluster of siloes to a cohesive, collaborative structure.
