Using Innovative Technology to Cope With Seasonal Peaks and Returns

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Ecommerce and retail are, technically, two separate things.

But the lines are becoming more and more blurred, creating specific and often conjoined challenges for both.

These challenges can be answered with innovative technology, applied strategically along the supply chain: a worthy investment, considering the existing – and projected – global ecommerce market share.

“Retail” refers to the “offline” sale of products from a physical store, while “ecommerce” refers to sales made exclusively online, fulfilled through door-to-door delivery.

Separating the two is becoming harder, as there is now an emerging third channel, known as “omnichannel,” which collates the two methods together.

Omnichannel gives the customer more choice as to how they wish to place, fulfill and receive their orders, and allows businesses to offer more options and reduce barriers to sales.

This is great news for the consumer, and for the businesses that supply them, facilitating a faster, cheaper, and more seamless buying experience.

However, this has led to several new challenges for the supply chain, which providers must be quick to adapt to in order to remain competitive.

There was a time when retail and ecommerce were fulfilled by separate sites, specializing in either bulk orders or smaller “convenience” ones.

But this emerging new channel incorporating the likes of “click and collect,” third-party couriers, and other fulfillment methods means that distinguishing between “retail” and “ecommerce” from a supply point of view is becoming harder to do.

Nonetheless, emerging innovative technology is available to help you ease the pressure on the ever-complex warehouse floor, no matter what the channel.

“Many organizations are still operating with a retail channel and an ecommerce channel, and for omnichannel to be fully realized you need to be able to fulfill the two in the same fashion, giving the customer the same experience.”

John Santagate - VP of Robotics for Körber

Emerging technology is available to help you ease the pressure on the ever-complex warehouse floor, no matter what the channel.