29 September 2022 E-logistics: are you already familiar with the term? The logistics of e-commerce is known as e-logistics. So, like traditional logistics, it involves a set of activities that integrate your company’s supply chain, such as: Receiving and checking products or inputs; Warehousing; Handling products for order preparation (picking); Monitoring shipped orders and much more. It’s not that different from current logistics, right?! But in the digital world, everything must be very agile, and it’s necessary to invest in logistics to ensure the growth of your store, customer acquisition, and, most importantly, customer retention. For your customer, delivery times and shipping costs are relevant factors in choosing an online store. In other words, a well-structured e-commerce is a valuable differentiator for any virtual company. Many companies invest heavily in attractive websites and digital marketing but forget the essential: logistics. If the operation does not work well, errors and delays are inevitable. The entrepreneur must have enough products in stock to meet the demand of customers accessing their website and provide timely deliveries, always seeking alternatives to reduce this time. After all, time is money! To help you optimize your warehouse, we have gathered some important tips. Tips for optimizing your e-commerce warehouse Discover some points that need to be prioritized in an e-commerce warehouse to ensure process agility, cost and error reduction, and the best customer service: 1 – Ideal picking method for an e-commerce operation The separation of e-commerce orders occurs differently from traditional warehouses, after all, these are orders for fractional items. Therefore, it is not possible to use the same picking strategies for closed boxes or large volumes. It is necessary to use the ideal mode, such as batch picking, which groups orders to reduce access and increase separation agility. It is worth emphasizing that speed is a crucial factor for an e-commerce warehouse, especially during sorting! 2 – Slotting to keep the warehouse organized An organized e-commerce warehouse is an efficient warehouse; after all, organization ensures agility and accuracy in picking, replenishment, and other important processes. To ensure that products are in the correct positions and the best use of space, there is the Slotting strategy. You can also do it manually, but if you rely on the WMS system, which can be a complete operation, it becomes much simpler! The WMS does everything automatically and saves you and your team from spending hours analyzing a large amount of data to define the best positions. 3 – Reverse logistics Unlike wholesale or retail warehouses, exchanges and returns are frequent in e-commerce. This means that you need to have excellent processes in place to ensure efficiency in reverse logistics, from the moment the returned product arrives at the warehouse to the return of the new item. Count on WMS for this. The system helps process returns and direct them to the best location. It also facilitates the agile separation of new merchandise. 4 – Innovations: technology in favor of efficiency New tools and solutions are increasingly emerging to facilitate processes in a warehouse, particularly e-commerce operations, which tend to be more complex. If you want to stand out in the market, don’t let innovation pass you by! Invest in technologies, and you will see how they provide full support for making precise and extremely agile deliveries. You should start by investing in a good warehouse management system, WMS, software designed specifically to support intralogistics operations, helping you manage and also the flow of materials. The WMS is present from the receipt of the product to its shipment, and most importantly: the software supports different operations in the same warehouse. The intelligence of the system organizes orders, selects waves at the right time, performs automatic replenishment, organizes delivery routes, among other functions that add a lot to an e-commerce operation. Another difference of the WMS is that the system provides real-time information on the operation (Management in View), helping the manager and teams maintain productivity and correct discrepancies if they occur. Additionally, the WMS has various picking modes and integrates with the most modern automatic systems. 5 – WMS provider We highlighted WMS in the previous topic because the software truly provides full support for optimizations. That’s why it’s worth having it in your warehouse and even more: having a good provider who will offer you robust, flexible, and advanced software. Check if the provider follows market trends and if the software is ready for omnichannel operations, because if your company is not yet multichannel, it is very likely that it will be in the future. 6 – Team with an eye on the future We talked about the importance of having a good system and advanced technologies, but we cannot forget the most important thing: people! They are the ones who will manage the tools, so your team must believe in the potential of innovations and be open to changes. Always try to motivate them, showing the importance of looking to the future and relying on technology providers to offer good training. If your team has the ability to adapt and engage in new projects, success will come much more easily! The future is here and now It’s no secret that technology has arrived to simplify our lives. And for your business, it’s essential, it’s not the future, it’s the present! This evolution is happening now, and you cannot be left behind. Here’s everything you need to know to face the new digital market! Prepare your warehouse for the e-commerce revolution Deagor WMS per ecommerce può aiutarti!