How to make your company peak-season ready?

The biggest shopping season is round the corner as people in India gear for festivities which will continue till the end of the year. Dipanjan Banerjee of Ecom Express Services is writing about how to prepare for the demand surge in terms of warehousing, logistics and technology.

Needless to say, shopping and festivity go hand in hand. This year the focus will be more on online shopping due to the obvious Covid-19 fear. People will be hesitant to step-out; therefore, all e-commerce companies should gear-up beforehand to disburse the extra load that festive season will generate for them.

As exciting as it may seem, it brings challenges for any business, no matter how big or small is the company, and e-commerce is no exception. This year, the peak season giftings and buying are expected to be even higher, as not everyone can meet and greet their loved ones personally.

Inventory & Warehousing
Extra cost, wrong products, low productivity of the staff, shipping errors and inventory control issues are few signs of an inefficient warehousing mechanism. E-commerce players will have to maintain more than optimum inventory and modify their warehouse configuration for efficient handling of goods and packages. RFID tagging is also one of the good ways to handle the inventory.

With the festive season approaching fast, many suppliers are already preparing their supply chains to handle the demand uptick. Without proper warehouse and inventory management strategy, your revenue will be lost on unnecessary inventories. If any company faces these issues, they will need to consider better warehousing solutions. Proper warehousing and inventory management not only reduces delivery time but also the risk of errors.

Logistics
Fewer drivers, a lack of truck capacity and insufficient supply chain ecosystem during the festive season are not healthy signs for the organization. Your number one focus should be on delivering outstanding customer service. But for that, you may need to plan your logistics and plan it well, to be able to respond better during demand spikes. Get a logistics partner with best last-mile delivery services, multiple options of cargo shipment including air and surface and enough manpower to handle the packages to ensure a happy customer. Logistics players need to be laced with navigation technologies that can help the company track the whereabouts of the package, vehicular and traffic conditions, real-time. This would provide an extra edge in reaching the destination faster and get back to other deliveries.

Technology to the Rescue
It is evident from previous instances that the demand surges are nearly impossible to predict during the festive season. Shoppers want assurances that their deliveries will arrive on time. It doesn’t matter how well is the business platform, if the back-end isn’t running smoothly, businesses can face a tough time. By automating processes, you not only work faster, but you also prevent unnecessary errors. And you certainly want to avoid those during the holiday season when things will already be stressful!

Technology has been proved a painkiller in the e-commerce industry and helped maintain the flow of supply chains throughout. The smart use of technology for order placement, tracking, shipment and delivery in real-time can be a boon for e-tailers. They can also alert customers, as and when the orders get delayed due to unforeseen circumstances. A robust customer communication management and CRM platform can come in handy here. E-tailers should aim to make every load delivery experience as seamless and as easy as possible. No one likes routing tracking calls.

Ensure you have enough staff and the requisite software and hardware are up to date, and your servers are scalable enough to handle a surge in website traffic and hassle-free order placements. If you do not have enough hands, it can become impossible to finish orders on time.

Finally
As consumers rely on e-commerce websites for a convenient method of buying what they need, and also gifting their loved ones during this crisis times, e-commerce companies will have to scale up their efforts in order to handle extra load orders effectively. Moreover, last-mile mandates will be extra demanding due to the successful and timely deliveries of those orders. More and more SMBs will be looking for third party logistics to handle their orders from packing to shipping, customer service and return/exchange orders. Supply chain management is all set to reach a new high and will need to go that extra mile during peak shopping time.

Dipanjan Banerjee is the Vice President – Sales at Ecom Express Services.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Indian Transport & Logistics News.