2 October 2023 The period has arrived when most companies experience an increase in sales. To make the most of the opportunities, logistics must be organized. Discover 10 steps to speed up order processing. The end of the year is approaching, bringing with it important events that will heat up the Italian market for the next two months. The World Cup, as well as Black Friday, are the big bets to increase sales in commerce in November. And it doesn’t end there: the year-end holidays, Christmas, and New Year have always been a reason for alert and high demand in the market. However, the last two years have been marked by the pandemic, and there has been an inevitable decline in various niches, reducing sales volume worldwide. This year, on the contrary, the scenario is optimistic. After a long period, celebrations now foresee the end of restrictive measures against Covid-19, and companies are looking to offer competitive advantages and quality in service provision, to seize opportunities and get ahead of the competition. Considering this scenario, is your company able to adapt to the high season? Is your business ready to take advantage of the opportunities created by the market? With the new consumption model, increasingly demanding customers, and strong competition, how is your company’s logistics? In this article, we share some important tips that help your company increase the speed of order processing during peak sales periods, ensuring high-quality service to buyers and taking advantage of all opportunities during the period. Take a look below. Sales Peaks: How to Ensure High Performance in Fulfillment Preparing the warehouse for the increase in sales requires an examination of all warehouse areas that might need support or extra supplies. This must be done before peak hours, ensuring that the team is not caught off guard by unforeseen events that are difficult to overcome. Additionally, other actions are crucial. Below are some expert tips for efficient preparation: 1 – Check the Entire Warehouse Workflow As we highlighted, the first step to preparing your warehouse for the end-of-year sales increase is to check the entire supply chain, looking for points of improvement and process optimization. It is essential to have a 360° view to seek practical, fast, and efficient solutions, to avoid future bottlenecks that could compromise the functioning of the logistics chain during sales peaks. One of the major errors that can be identified and improved at this stage are 100% manual processes, using resources like spreadsheets, notebooks, and paper notes, which can be replaced by software and technological resources that optimize, speed up, and reduce errors during the workflow. 2 – Prioritize Improvements in the Picking and Packing Area Besides identifying points of improvement throughout the operational flow, it is necessary to prioritize areas like picking and packing, as they consume more resources and productivity time in the warehouse. In this way, evaluate possible problems, task execution times, the location of stations and lines, as well as team size. Understanding the needs and optimizing these steps is essential to ensure the efficiency of the entire team during periods of increased sales. To ensure everything works correctly, consider evaluating the following topics: Are the picking lines replenished correctly? Are the faster-moving products located in more accessible positions for the sorter and close to shipping? Is the stock of product packaging sufficient? Are the shipping packages well-positioned, avoiding back and forth in the space? Do employees have to walk a lot in the areas to send an order? What is the average time for packing and shipping an order? Is it possible to increase the team and optimize times? Is it interesting to add another packing station so that orders do not remain in line to be completed? Is the workspace organized and offers comfort to employees? Dedicate yourself to answering these questions with the utmost detail, as the answers will provide you with ways to make changes that will ensure greater quality and efficiency in task execution, which will directly reflect on the speed of fulfillment. 3 – Project Requests Based on Previous Information After identifying areas of improvement in warehouse infrastructure and optimizing the operational flow, it is essential to understand the sales history of recent years. From data collection and analysis, it is possible to estimate goals and project the number of orders based on previous periods. Obtaining this information helps you create new strategies and prepare stocks for the period of increased sales. During this evaluation phase, consider some criteria such as: Amount billed in recent years. Total sales made in the same period in recent years. Main commemorative dates for your company. Stock strategies used in recent years. Effectiveness of results in similar periods. Market expectations for the current year. A clear assessment of the warehouse demand history helps you identify changes in consumer behavior and how they have reacted to your company over the years. It is possible to understand if orders have increased or decreased and what measures need to be taken to achieve better performance and results. Other important information can be obtained by checking previous periods of your warehouse, such as: stock management strategies, consumption trends, product preferences, anticipation of problems, stock organization, redistribution of goods, promotion possibilities, as well as evaluating contracts, whether with suppliers and transport companies. 4 – Adapt the Warehouse Layout After going through all the evaluation phases and identifying areas of improvement, it may be necessary to reorganize the space and infrastructure of the warehouse to adapt to the period of increased sales. Therefore, ensure that the inventory layout, picking area, order preparation, and shipping are adjusted during peak activity, ensuring that employee effort and movement are reduced during the picking and packing of an order. If necessary, consider simplifying the merchandise packing phase. “But how do I know if my warehouse needs a temporary layout change?” To do this, it is necessary to consider the issues raised in the previous points and project the results that the suggested changes can bring at the end of the period. This is done based on an honest and objective analysis, and we always recommend using technologies like the WMS system, as it provides data accurately, allowing you to make the best decisions. 5 – Plan and Organize Inventory to Increase Sales After analyzing the order history in previous periods, it becomes much simpler to organize and plan inventory to increase end-of-year sales. Try to work with adequate stock levels, respecting the expected demands and ensuring there is no shortage of products to fulfill orders. Pay particular attention during this period and frequently monitor the number of items in inventory, carefully checking what enters and exits the stock and understanding which products are most in demand. Also, pay attention to merchandise replacement. This ensures that no problems occur during the workflow and avoids negative experiences for the final customer. Bonus tip: We know that in most warehouses there is the fear of having empty stocks that compromise the functioning of the supply chain, so make projections and consult tools that offer reliable indicators (like the WMS system) before purchasing too many products and end up making the mistake of overstocking, that is, having too much merchandise in the warehouse. Additionally, maintain a good relationship with your suppliers and try to rely on reliable partners ready to serve your company in case of unforeseen demand. 6 – Pay Attention to Transportation: Prioritize Delivery Speed The scenario is the same in all niches: end of the year, increasing sales, and consumers even more demanding regarding the shopping experience. Therefore, companies have more difficulty meeting the shipping deadline, which can increase waiting times for the customer and, consequently, lead them to abandon the purchase. To prevent this situation from occurring, ensure that your warehouse has excellent partner transport companies and consider implementing systems that integrate your warehouse into the shipping process, thus automating the workflow and ensuring better shipping services for the consumer. OMS, for example, is excellent software capable of tracking information and processes related to orders, including entry, inventory management, fulfillment, and post-sale service. 7- Create a Plan for Reverse Logistics With the increase in end-of-year sales, it is normal for the level of returns to also increase. Therefore, it is important that your warehouse is prepared and has strategies to respond to these customers with speed and quality, after all, the focus is always on maintaining good relationships and a positive customer experience. Therefore, prepare a space and a specialized team within the warehouse to perform this type of procedure and develop a workflow to avoid any problems. Bonus tip: You can reduce the number of returns, exchanges, or errors by implementing the WMS system. With the software, your operation now performs strict incoming control, avoiding errors that start in the first phase and affect the entire flow. Additionally, the system offers address suggestions, avoiding losses and damages, and guides employees during picking and control during shipping. All this reduces the impact that reverse logistics can have on the supply chain. Not to mention that the system also helps in processing returns, bringing more speed and assertiveness. 8 – Train Your Team Valuing your team is essential, especially when it comes to increasing sales. During this period, it is normal for employees to feel overwhelmed and generally work under greater pressure. To ensure better performance and provide the necessary tools so that your team does not feel disadvantaged, offer training with the necessary skills, aiming to optimize time and reduce manual efforts in peak activities. There are some types of training that can be carried out to increase sales: – Training Focused on Productivity This training can enhance the team’s skills, offering a series of information that allows each employee to know different warehouse functions and to be able to perform job rotations, that is, each employee is able to work in different areas and can be reallocated in the function they perform best. – Training Focused on Optimization In cases where the warehouse has integrated a management system into its operational flow, all employees must have the necessary information to safely perform the activities determined by the software. – Training with an Affective Focus During the season of increased sales, value your team and share the company’s values with each employee. It is important that they feel part of something meaningful and receive the recognition they deserve. Reinforce the strength of their work and its importance to the team. 9 – Continuously Monitor All Operations Create a continuous verification rule throughout the warehouse, monitor stock levels, the quantity of packaging and materials for shipping orders, plan emergency supplies, and always have reliable supplier contacts at hand who can assist with any problems during the workflow. It seems impossible, but can you imagine your business having to stop due to a lack of boxes, plastic, labels, or even consumables, like printer ink, to send your orders? You can never be too careful in seasons where sales increase. 10 – Monitor Productivity Indicators Thanks to cutting-edge technology and quality technical support, all stages related to fulfillment can be monitored and controlled in real-time. This helps ensure the predictability of the entire warehouse operation, as well as avoiding errors that can be corrected quickly and efficiently. Prepare Your Warehouse to Increase Sales with WMS Features The WMS system is an ally in warehouse management when it comes to increasing sales, as it offers advanced technology capable of guiding the entire operational process, prioritizing activities, guiding operators step by step, and alerting in case of errors. This allows automating the entire process, improves activities, reduces failure rates, and offers greater security during periods of high demand. Here at Deagor, you will find this and other technological resources that help in warehouse automation, value your workforce, and facilitate the coordination and monitoring of activities in year-end operations. Contact us and request a demo! Prepare Your Warehouse to Boost Sales: 10 Tips to Speed Up Order Fulfillment Deagor WMS per ecommerce può aiutarti!