What’s New - Meeting Direct to Consumer Order Fulfillment Demands

Consumer Products Fulfillment is the heart and soul of Business to Consumer (B2C) fulfillment.  While the industry is already fairly mature, there are new innovations and best practices emerging daily.  Recently an article was published by Multichannel Merchant.  The article, which can be found here presents a number of concepts and ideas for meeting consumer demand.  It provides a great starting place in reviewing your operations.  Points covered included:

•  Digital and consumer behavior driving change.
• Capitalizing on wave’s strength.
• Enter order streaming.
• How order streaming works.
• Let consumer expectations be your guide.

 

Consumer products fulfillment and B2C order fulfillment efficiency is all about finding the similarities within dissimilar items or processes.  Process efficiency and streamlining is critical – every second counts.  That said, all of the efficiency is for naught if the quality and customer experience is not top notch.  Quality and timeliness much coexist together for overall success.

Vision has decades of experience in the field of small parcel order fulfillment, with many years of relevant innovation success.  We would love to show you our methodology and how we’ve blended quality and timeliness in order to provide success for both our customers as well as your customers.

Vision Consumer Products Fulfillment has decades of experience and industry expertise in consumer products fulfillment services.  No matter who your customer is, we treat your customer as our own.  We know what makes a raving fan out of an individual customer, as well as what makes a business partner trust you with their business.  Call or email us to learn how.  We’re certain we’ll be the best fulfillment warehouse partner you have ever had!

www.visioncpf.com

CPFSales@VisionMediamgmt.com

E-Commerce Experience

In an era where everyone keeps a potential shopping device within hands’ reach at all times, maintaining an e-commerce presence is a must for all companies. A customer’s experience with your e-commerce store makes a significant impact on whether they convert or move on to a competitor with a nicer site.

Details, down to the most basic design and content choices, on your home page will capture a potential customer’s interest and urge them to continue browsing your products, eventually leading to a purchase. The key here is to always consider the user’s experience. The easier your website is to navigate, the easier it is for a prospect to convert and come back for more.

Here are some things to keep in mind when you’re thinking of the customer’s experience on your e-commerce site:

• Make sure your buying process doesn’t contain any broken links. Regularly audit your site to be sure that all internal links lead to accurate products and current offers. A broken link makes customers uneasy and if a customer feels uncomfortable with any part of the buying process, they won’t hesitate to find another company they are comfortable with. 
• The store should be full of beautiful, detailed images. Customers like to see what they are purchasing before they even put it into their basket. Show off your products in great detail and highlight anything specific to the product. 
• Make sure your site loads quickly. The average e-commerce customer will lose interest in a site if it takes over 2 seconds to load. Slow load times can lead customers off your site completely—make efficiency a priority. 
• Most e-commerce interactions are completed via mobile. Don’t let your lack of mobile experience be the reason you lose customers. Make sure the mobile version of your site has identical functionality, affording smartphone and tablet shoppers all of the same amenities.
• Customer rating and reviews matter. Display previous and current customer’s satisfaction via a rating system or comments section. Studies have shown that customers trust user reviews as much as personal recommendations. Use this to your advantage! 
• Focus on great customer service. Customer service can come in many forms, such as chat, email, or phone support. According to a survey completed last month by Onestop, 63.3% of customers who had a good customer service experience returned to make another purchase.

E-commerce should be flawlessly intuitive. Anything that breaks the customer’s train of thought could prevent them from making the purchase. Remember—a customer’s second option is just a Google search away; make sure your site flows naturally from landing page to conversion. Think like a customer, consider the experience, and start racking up online sales.

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Vision Consumer Products Fulfillment has decades of experience and industry expertise in consumer products fulfillment services.  No matter who your customer is, we treat your customer as our own.  We know what makes a raving fan out of an individual customer, as well as what makes a business partner trust you with their business.  Call or email us to learn how.  We’re certain we’ll be the best fulfillment warehouse partner you have ever had!

Vision Consumer Products Fulfillment

Fulfillment Warehouse Services

http://visioncpf.com

CPFSales@VisionMediamgmt.com

Logistics Never Sleeps – 3 Key Strategies for Staying Ahead

Whether you’re an online merchant or a shipping manager for a fulfillment warehouse, you know that there’s no such thing as “downtime” when it comes to getting products out the door. Although things can seem a little slow when compared to the frenzy that is the holiday season, the earliest parts of the year are best used to improve on your processes and get prepared for success. Today, we’re going to talk about three strategies that we use to keep our consumer products fulfillment ops strong.

1. Sharing Across Channels

Over the last decade, order fulfillment has changed in many significant ways. The number of channels through which orders come in has increased dramatically and, in some cases, each one of these channels needs its own set of management. As a consequence, oftentimes each purchasing channel will also have their own inventory from which orders are fulfilled.

Successful 3PL providers need to have a clear pathway established for reaching across these channel divisions and using inventory where it’s most needed; and this clear pathway needs to be traveled without disrupting operations. Set practices for doing this in your warehouse and it’ll pay off when a certain product spikes in popularity through multiple channels.


2. Demand Forecasting

To the untrained eye, product demands seem to rise and fall at random. However, even seemingly timeless items have purchasing trends. Spend some time looking through the backlog of your orders and try to find some patterns in purchasing. If there isn’t enough data to study on your own, reach out to your partners and see if they anticipate any fluctuations in demand. By anticipating the crests and valleys of sales on certain items, you can more efficiently use the precious space in your fulfillment warehouse.


3. Future-Proofing

We write about logistics technology a lot on our blog and there’s a good reason for it. The future is coming whether you’re ready or not and that future is intrinsically linked to advances in technology. If you’re looking to get ahead, you need a 3PL provider that’s willing to innovate, adopt, and learn at the pace of technology. When a new skill or tool changes the paradigm, you don’t want to be left in the dust.

Vision Consumer Products Fulfillment has decades of experience and industry expertise in consumer products fulfillment services.  No matter who your customer is, we treat your customer as our own.  We know what makes a raving fan out of an individual customer, as well as what makes a business partner trust you with their business.  Call or email us to learn how.  We’re certain we’ll be the best fulfillment warehouse partner you have ever had!

Vision Consumer Products Fulfillment

Fulfillment Warehouse Services

http://visioncpf.com

CPFSales@VisionMediamgmt.com

To the Skies: How Drones Will (or Won’t) Change Order Fulfillment

If you’ve been keeping up with the news, you’ve likely heard some news about using drones to make package deliveries. This initiative has been pioneered by Amazon, your local neighborhood ecommerce giant, in a quest to use airborne drones to deliver parcels to paying customers quickly and automatically. If achievable, this feat has the capability of revolutionizing the world of order fulfillment. However, there are some restrictions and implications to keep in mind. Today, we’re going to discuss these implications and what they might been for the fulfillment warehouses of the future.

FAA Limitations

While Amazon’s technology is not yet fully development, this seems to be the least of their worries. Currently, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been hard at work trying to get a handle on the rapid increases in drone use.

In order for drone delivery to get underway, Amazon needs a few permissions from the FAA. The first, which Amazon has already secured, is called a Section 333 Exemption, which allows for the training in the use of unmanned drones. In addition, however, the FAA mandates that drones must stay 500 feet for people during operation. Getting exempt from this rule is difficult, but not impossible, as evidenced by a recent exemption grant for Kansas State University Polytechnic.

Weight Limits

In order to fly quickly, efficiently, and legally, Amazon’s drones of choice must weigh less than 55lbs. At that weight, Amazon is able to transport parcels weighing no more than 5lbs. Fortunately, this accounts for the majority of Amazon’s order fulfillment. However, this leaves a significant portion of items unaccounted for.

Open Field for Competitors

When (and if) the FAA opens the floodgates and allows Amazon to follow through with their drone-powered, 30-minute order fulfillment strategy, competitors are sure to follow suite. In fact, Wal-Mart has already begun research of their own. How Amazon plans to account for potentially crowded skies remains to be seen.

What Does this All Mean?

For consumers, it means that some of your lightweight packages will arrive quickly should you be in an approved and supported area. However, on a B2B level, moving large amounts of freight is likely to remain grounded. Regardless of your delivery needs, this is certainly an exciting time for logistics.

With the landscape looking ready to shift, you need to find a 3PL provider that embraces new technologies and is able to stay competitive in a developing market. Vision Consumer Products Fulfillment has always and will continue to adapt and develop the latest and greatest technologies to make sure everything finds its rightful place—quickly.  

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Vision Consumer Products Fulfillment has decades of experience and industry expertise in consumer products fulfillment services.  No matter who your customer is, we treat your customer as our own.  We know what makes a raving fan out of an individual customer, as well as what makes a business partner trust you with their business.  Call or email us to learn how.  We’re certain we’ll be the best fulfillment warehouse partner you have ever had!

Vision Consumer Products Fulfillment

Fulfillment Warehouse Services

http://visioncpf.com

CPFSales@VisionMediamgmt.com

The Biggest Day in E-Commerce You Didn’t Know About

If somebody asked you, “What’s the biggest single day for e-commerce sales?” you’d probably come up with one of two responses. Both Black Friday and Cyber Monday are great choices—billions of dollars move through online channels on these days and, for many retailers, these represent the peak of online sales for the year.

However, what you might not know about is the single biggest day in e-commerce sales volumes that happens, primarily, across the Atlantic, in China. November 11th is “Singles Day,” and it’s on this day that fulfillment warehouses the world over are in a frenzy shipping packages out to paying
customers.

So, just how big is Singles Day?
The holiday weekend that spans from Thanksgiving Day (11/26/15) through Cyber Monday (11/30/15) is known for bringing in massive volumes of sales. Last year, the online sales total for the entire weekend was roughly $11 billion dollars.

The total value of goods transacted through Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., during Singles Day 2015 was a staggering $14.32 billion. In a single day. That means a single company moved more than the entire 2014 GDP of Jamaica in one day. And while the amount of commerce done is impressive just by looking at the numbers, we can’t help must wonder about the amazing logistics and order fulfillment that goes on behind the scenes.

Singles Day in the US?
For all of you wondering if this means there’ll be yet another day in November in which you’re encourage to spend, spend, spend—don’t worry. Chances are, Singles Day won’t translate into a holiday in the US to any sort of magnitude near China’s. Retailers here plan all year long for Holiday Weekend special events and sales. The odds that they’ll want to prepare another sale for just a few weeks previous are slim.

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Vision Consumer Products Fulfillment has decades of experience and industry expertise in consumer products fulfillment services.  No matter who your customer is, we treat your customer as our own.  We know what makes a raving fan out of an individual customer, as well as what makes a business partner trust you with their business.  Call or email us to learn how.  We’re certain we’ll be the best fulfillment warehouse partner you have ever had!

Vision Consumer Products Fulfillment

Fulfillment Warehouse Services

http://visioncpf.com

CPFSales@VisionMediamgmt.com

The Order Fulfillment Technology that Fuels Fulfillment Warehouses

Just like with any other task in life, getting consumer products fulfillment done properly requires the right tools. Unlike other tasks, the ‘right tools’ happen to be a collection of sophisticated, specialized technologies. Today, we’re going to review a few of the technologies that power our fulfillment warehouses and make Vision Consumer Products Fulfillment such an efficient 3^rd party logistics provider.

Predictive Packaging Technology

Powered by sophisticated software, predictive packaging technology enables fulfillment warehouses to package goods as efficiently as possible using product dimensions and safety as guidelines. Complex algorithms package goods in just the right way to minimize dunnage and waste, which translates to more efficient logistics and savings for the client.

E-Commerce Expertise

The face of commerce has transformed radically over the last few years. Now, during the busiest shopping times of year, more business is done online than in-store. This makes efficient order fulfillment more paramount to success than ever before. Your 3PL provider must understand how e-commerce works, from back-end to front, and understand the complexity that goes into building an online storefront.

Pick-to-Voice Devices

Pick-to-voice devices powered by voice recognition technology allows warehouse operators to have constant direction as they place items in their proper place. With these devices, workers can simply speak the name or code of the item they’re holding and voice recognition technology will respond with the correct destination with 99.9% accuracy. Free of the burden of constantly glancing at order sheets, employees move about the fulfillment warehouse safely and efficiently.

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Vision Consumer Products Fulfillment has decades of experience and industry expertise in consumer products fulfillment services.  No matter who your customer is, we treat your customer as our own.  We know what makes a raving fan out of an individual customer, as well as what makes a business partner trust you with their business.  Call or email us to learn how.  We’re certain we’ll be the best fulfillment warehouse partner you have ever had!

Vision Consumer Products Fulfillment
Fulfillment Warehouse Services
http://visioncpf.com
CPFSales@VisionMediamgmt.com

What We Learned from Cyber Monday 2015

It’s the most wonderful time of year—for retailers and consumers alike. As we move into December and the dust settles from the zounds of online and in-store holiday shoppers, it’s time to take a look back and see what we can learn from the year’s most potent weekend for commerce.

Retailers Aren't Prepared

This year, out-of-stock rates were at an all-time high. Approximately 13% percent of product views were for out-of-stock products. That's double the normal rate!

While scarcity is a solid sales tactic and “Doorbuster” deals go hand-in-hand with Cyber Monday, the fact remains that ‘out-of-stock’ equals zero revenue. Next year, if you’re planning on flooring your consumers with amazing deals, make sure you have an all-star fulfillment warehouse to help you manage your stock as products fly off the shelves!

Ecommerce Has Gone Mobile

This shift has been happening for years, but now it’s official: Making your site mobile-ready is non-negotiable. 49% of Cyber Monday shopping visits were from mobile devices. No matter how efficient your fulfillment warehouse, your online storefront needs to be ready for mobile visitors. In order to keep up with the pace of technology, be sure to find an order fulfillment provider that knows the ins and outs of ecommerce.

Get Ready for Some Heavy Lifting

Although the process of shopping has gone online, the resulting purchases always require a physical response. The top-5 selling electronics on this Cyber Monday were, in order,

1. 4K Televisions
2. Microsoft Xbox One
3. Apple iPad Mini
4. Apple iPad Air 2
5. Sony PS4

The Xbox One is a chunky 447 cubic inches and weighs 7 pounds, the PS4 clocks in at 269.5 cubic inches and weighs 6.1 pounds, and 4K televisions come in all shapes, weights, and sizes. The common thread between these items is that, when shipped in mass, they’re heavy. The driving force for all these purchases must be a consumer products fulfillment provider that’s willing to orchestrate heavy lifting in a timely and efficient manner.

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Vision Consumer Products Fulfillment has decades of experience and industry expertise in consumer products fulfillment services.  No matter who your customer is, we treat your customer as our own. We know what makes a raving fan out of an individual customer, as well as what makes a business partner trust you with their business.  Call or email us to learn how.  We’re certain we’ll be the best fulfillment warehouse partner you have ever had!

http://visioncpf.com

CPFSales@VisionMediamgmt.com