Virtual reality (VR) is something we’ve been hearing a lot about recently, but did you know your shopping experience could be influenced by this in the not too distant future? Or perhaps it already has?
Continue reading “Virtual Reality (VR) is Enhancing E-Commerce Shopping! (Infographic)”Tag: Retail
The Retail industry is unique as it pertains to Supply Chain and the challenges that are associated with serving individual consumers on a personalized basis.
Anatomy of the Perfect Unboxing Experience! (Infographic)
In today’s eCommerce landscape, the majority of customers interact with you only two times, once when they make a purchase on your website and then again when the product is delivered. Improving your website’s conversion rate is very important and gains a lot of attention in the eCommerce industry, while the anatomy of the unboxing experience is too often overlooked.
As the marketplace for physical products continues to transition online, the customer experiences far less interaction with the actual company. These lost opportunities for a business to impress through exemplary service will need to be compensated for in other ways.
Continue reading “Anatomy of the Perfect Unboxing Experience! (Infographic)”Value Stream Mapping the Future State Process!
We had completed value stream mapping the current state processes across some very significant business processes in the company. It took a fair amount of time even though we had the active involvement of subject matter experts and leaders from every functional organization.
When all was said and done the current state involved hundreds of process steps, almost 200 pain points, and dozens of iterative, repetitive loops. The company was just being introduced to Lean process improvement techniques. And as challenging as it was to reach a common understanding of what the current processes were the difficult part was about to start.
How were we going to define and map the Future State process?
Continue reading “Value Stream Mapping the Future State Process!”The Complexities of Being a Small Retailer! (Infographic)
The advent of the internet and the growth of multiple chain stores means that with being a small retailer or an independent retailer you now face a number of challenges to their survival.
However, it’s not all bad news. Over the past five years, the small specialty retail store sector in the US have grown by 1% to reach revenue of $41 billion in 2018.
So, it’s clear that there is plenty of opportunity to not just survive but thrive.
This infographic from Storetraffic looks at some of the complexities of being an independent retailer and offers a comprehensive survival guide for 2019.
Continue reading “The Complexities of Being a Small Retailer! (Infographic)”The Amazing Supply Chain of Your Morning Coffee!
Even though modern coffee machines offer an attractive variety of caffeinated drinks like cappuccino or latte macchiato, for me it is a simple cup of black coffee that helps kick-start my productivity when the clock strikes 8 am.
This “kick-start”, or boost aspect of coffee was randomly discovered between the sixth and the ninth century. A widespread tale sets the scene in the kingdom of Kaffa, in Abyssinia – which today is Ethiopia – where a shepherd one day observed that his sheep were unusually cheerful after eating white blossoms and red cherries from a previously unknown plant.
Continue reading “The Amazing Supply Chain of Your Morning Coffee!”The Future of E-Commerce! (Infographic)
Thanks to digital technology we can carry out commercial transactions online. We can buy and sell items or services, pay bills, make orders, and so much more as we look to the future of E-Commerce.
Online enterprises are heavily relying on this commodity. This is why we have numerous online businesses nowadays.
The infographic below from Subscriptionly will inform you about the current and future tech trends that will influence the ecommerce sector. Some of the main trends are as follows.
Continue reading “The Future of E-Commerce! (Infographic)”Seasoned Leadership in Action™! An Interview with Paul Kretz, Head of SCM at Church & Dwight!
At Supply Chain Game Changer we believe in sharing experiences and expertise from people in every industry and from across the globe. As such we have introduced our “Seasoned Leadership in Action™” Interview series at Supply Chain Game Changer. This interview is with Paul Kretz, Head of SCM at Church and Dwight.
I first met Paul at Celestica. He left to purse other interests but our paths crossed again later on. I was at a company that had just implemented a new WMS system in the Distribution Centre. The system cutover was a disaster. And the operation had been run without true Warehouse Management experience as well. As I looked to recruit a new leader I was looking for a someone who could lead change.
I toured my final two candidates through the Distribution Centre, including Paul. Their reactions would help me decide who to select. The other person seemed overwhelmed and lost while looking at the mess in the warehouse. It wasn’t clear what they would do. Paul looked at the disastrous situation like a kid in a candy store. He saw opportunity at every turn. And instead of being intimidated by the situation Paul was motivated and inspired. I found my leader!
Continue reading “Seasoned Leadership in Action™! An Interview with Paul Kretz, Head of SCM at Church & Dwight!”Complexity in the Retail Supply Chain!
As consumers the complexity in the retail supply chain is usually oblivious to us. We go to the store and pick up the goods that we want. Or we order goods online from our devices at home, in the office, or anywhere for that matter. We consume the items, returning them if necessary, unaware of all of the work that went into making those goods available to us.
A phenomenal amount of activity goes on behind the scenes to make this experience as seamless as possible. I am not saying that it always goes smoothly. Sometimes items are broken. They are late. Or there is some other issue.
But behind the curtain that is Retail there are a lot of people managing a lot of processes and dealing with a lot of complexity earnestly trying to make your goods available to you.
Continue reading “Complexity in the Retail Supply Chain!”Supply Chain Predictions!
As to Supply Chain predictions, in the book The Living Supply Chain, the authors argue that, “Speeding up the supply chain is at the root of everything that is good: improved revenue, reduced working capital, higher profitability, and less obsolete inventory. Conversely, slowing down the supply chain is at the root of everything that is bad: working capital write-offs, reduced profitability, and slowing revenues.”
To “speed” up the supply chain is to invest in change and change will come with the digital transformation of the supply chain, which is the major focus for executives in the future.
Continue reading “Supply Chain Predictions!”Lessons from the Edge of the Abyss! Surviving a System Implementation!
The company I had just joined was nearing the finish line on the implementation of a new WMS system. They had been working on the system change for a few years. Now implementation was only a few months away. There were going to be lessons from the edge of this experience.
As the implementation date drew closer one of the key Warehouse management leaders, heading the project from the beginning, left the company. We forged ahead and implemented the system on April 1st. That’s right, April 1st!
And that’s when the “fun” began!
Continue reading “Lessons from the Edge of the Abyss! Surviving a System Implementation!”Multichannel vs Omnichannel Fulfillment Solutions!
“Omnichannel” is certainly the prevalent phrase in the E-Commerce arena. The expectation in an Omnichannel Fulfillment world is that a customer can order what they want, when they want, on whatever device they want, and have it delivered how they want.
The physical delivery part of the Omnichannel expectation can be very elusive. Many companies claim that they are Omnichannel service providers. But are they really?
How many E-Commerce Fulfillment options are there? And how many do you provide in your company?
Continue reading “Multichannel vs Omnichannel Fulfillment Solutions!”What is a Multichannel Distribution Management System?
Many businesses begin with single-channel distribution. That sole channel could be a brick-and-mortar store or an e-commerce website. In either case, all sales flow through one outlet.
The advantage of a single-channel distribution management system is simplicity. There’s only one channel to manage, one channel to stock, and one channel to market to customers. As a business expands, however, the single-channel model can limit growth.
Continue reading “What is a Multichannel Distribution Management System?”Introducing Lean In Retail … Start in the Backroom!
The Retail company I had just joined was undergoing a massive transformation. Fundamentally the new merchandising strategy was to curate a dramatically different set of products from that which was carried historically, but in addition to what was carried historically. What did this mean for the backroom in every store?
This meant that an enormous number of the business processes had to be transformed to support the new product set because management of the new merchandise required much different capabilities in all aspects of running a retail company. Not only did this transformation require new capabilities but it also required improvements to productivity and efficiency throughout the company. And overall this meant a need for cultural change.
I decided that I would introduce Lean process improvement techniques to this company.
Continue reading “Introducing Lean In Retail … Start in the Backroom!”From Click to Ship in 4 Minutes! Ultimate Principles for World Class Fulfillment!
The capability we had in E-Commerce order fulfillment was rather basic. We had employees manually pushing carts up and down standard warehouse racking aisles picking goods off of shelves. And when they had completed an order or a set of orders they would then push the entire cart back to a centralized order packing station.
As a Supply Chain Services company we needed a dramatically better capability if we were wanted to have customers trust their growing E-Commerce business with us. Pushing carts around a warehouse is both inefficient and lacks innovation.
We had to go back to the drawing board. But in doing so we would end up with a World Class solution!
Continue reading “From Click to Ship in 4 Minutes! Ultimate Principles for World Class Fulfillment!”To DC Or Not To DC? That is the Warehouse Design Question!
The fast growing E-Commerce channel makes it an attractive avenue for most companies to participate in. The tremendous amount of investment required to participate in online product sales requires explicit decision making as to how a company is going to fulfill those orders.
You need a warehouse design strategy to provide your fulfillment solution.
The E-Commerce Fulfillment solution you choose must take into account your customer’s demands, your competitive pressures, and the financial constraints that most companies have to deal with.
Continue reading “To DC Or Not To DC? That is the Warehouse Design Question!”