What Can You Do About Fulfillment?
The pandemic shifts the spotlight to logistics
E-commerce sales have risen by a staggering 44% since the onset of the pandemic.1 This surge in online sales has in turn forced many businesses to quickly pivot their distribution strategies to get their goods into the hands of consumers.
No longer part of a company’s “behind the scenes” operations, fulfillment and logistics have taken center stage in the post-pandemic reality. Customers are demanding greater efficiency and choice in the way they access products and meeting these demands is becoming a competitive necessity. Recent studies show that customers are 49% more likely to shop with a business that can offer same-day delivery,2 and 59% of consumers have shown an interest in other fulfillment options, such as buy online, pick-up in store or BOPIS.3
“When it absolutely, positively, has to be there…”
Luckily, advances in technology, both in business automation software and robotics and IoT hardware solutions, are rapidly being developed and deployed to help companies, both large and small, meet their fulfillment needs. For example:
- Cloud-based shipping software is increasingly becoming a fulfillment necessity. These productive tools can help automate shipment execution for increased agility, plan transportation strategies with integrations for multiple carriers, and adapt to an omnichannel distribution strategy to fulfill a mix of order fulfillment options.
- Fulfillment challenges, particularly for companies working at scale, are also being met by advances in robotics and related hardware. These range from inventory and tracking scanners to multi-bot automated picking systems that optimize order fulfillment at product warehouses.
For many businesses, keeping pace with new distribution realities is now a mission-critical challenge. As you weigh your fulfillment and logistics strategies and the resources required to realize them, we are here to help. We can provide financing options, which allow you to maximize the growth of your business in this new age of real-time delivery.
1 US ecommerce grows 14.2% in 2021, Digital Commerce 360, Jessica Young, February 18, 2022.
2 2020 Hindsight: Top 5 Takeaways for Retail Supply Cain Leaders, Logistyx Technolgies, information retrieved 2/28/22.
3 What is Buy Online, Pick-Up In Store (BOPIS) in Retail? (2022), Alexis Damen, shopify, February 16, 2022
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By accessing the noted link you will be leaving Washington Trust's website and entering a website hosted by another party. Washington Trust is not responsible for, nor do we control, endorse or guarantee the content of any external sites. Please be advised that you will no longer be subject to, or under the protection of, the privacy and security policies of Washington Trust's website. We encourage you to read and evaluate the privacy and security policies of the site you are entering, which may be different than those of Washington Trust.
By accessing the noted link you will be leaving Washington Trust's website and entering a website hosted by another party. Washington Trust is not responsible for, nor do we control, endorse or guarantee the content of any external sites. Please be advised that you will no longer be subject to, or under the protection of, the privacy and security policies of Washington Trust's website. We encourage you to read and evaluate the privacy and security policies of the site you are entering, which may be different than those of Washington Trust.
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