It is no longer about how you deliver the product to customers; instead, it is about how the customer chooses to have the product delivered. The final delivery options are varied, and customers expect seamless logistics in their shopping experiences regardless of the channel.

While e-commerce still only makes up about 5 percent of all retail sales, double-digit growth is expected to continue, meaning more and more often, a customer will choose some level of e-commerce as their preferred source. At the same time, multiple channels are often in play with a customer’s desire to personalize their logistics experience.

Today’s consumer craves a flawless experience - the ability to order exactly what they want, when they want it, and how they want it, regardless of where they are located. To take full advantage of this, traditional retail and wholesale distribution centers and fulfillment centers will need to evolve into flexible, personalized distribution centers, fulfillment centers, and/or a combination of distribution centers and fulfillment centers.

Using the “click and collect” delivery channel, consumers have the option to purchase their merchandise online and select the retail store location at which they can pick up the order. The “click and collect” fulfillment model does not impose any shipping or pickup charges to the customer.

Multichannel logistics has many challenges to overcome. Traditionally, warehouse facilities were designed with the ability to efficiently serve only one channel, lacking the flexibility to expand. They are either effective in their ability to ship cases to wholesale and retail customers, or they are effective in fulfilling smaller, mixed case shipments directly to a customer. Re-purposing a single channel facility requires significant changes to be able to fill orders across multiple channels.

Flexibility is the key when transitioning to multichannel logistics. Order and shipment size are vastly different, seasonality is more volatile, cycle times are shorter, return rates are higher, and personalized value-added services are required.

The Outlook

Meeting customer demands for “personalized logistics” can be done through a traditional single channel of facilities or a flexible network of multichannel facilities. Expanding facility capabilities to meet distribution and fulfillment requirements of personalized logistics across all channels is certainly not easy, but, when done correctly it creates huge advantages, such as minimizing labor costs, inventory cost savings, and consolidation of the IT strategy.