Prime Day 2024 is here! If you work in Operations for a retail company, you know what that means: A flood of promotions (Prime Exclusive Discount, Lightning Deals, etc.) set up by Marketing and Sales, and a big wave of orders and shipments for you and your team to handle.
All eyes are now on the Operations –which means you.The last thing we want is for shipping orders to get bogged down or inefficient returns management to drag down your customer satisfaction scores.
So, what can these high-stress periods teach us about warehouse optimization? Here are a some key takeaways:
Optimize Warehouse Layout and Product Workflows
To maximize efficiency, optimize your warehouse by incorporating best practices learned from previous holiday seasons and newer strategies to maximize product flow. Key approaches include:
- Minimize product handling, unnecessary worker movement, and travel time for retrieving items.
- Position faster-selling products closer to pickers to reduce walking distances.
- Analyze SKUs to identify seasonal items and determine optimal storage locations.
Streamlining your warehouse layout for peak season will reduce turnaround time for order fulfillment and drastically cut down on unnecessary associate movements.
Maximize Shelf Space
Look around your facility – are you storing air? Empty shelves or areas with hard-to-reach SKUs might signal it’s time to reorganize. Consider dynamic solutions over wire mesh pallet racks or flat industrial shelving to store more SKUs in the same space.
Prepare for Increased Labor Costs
You’ll likely need more staff during peak season. Manage these costs by streamlining order fulfillment processes:
- Optimize pick paths to reduce travel time.
- Keeping inventory organized to reduce search times.
- Implement ergonomic picking, packing, and storage solutions to reduce worker strain.
Forecast Demand Volumes
Use warehouse automation software to access historical data from previous peak seasons for demand forecasting, labor scheduling, outbound fulfillment optimization, and predictive analytics. With this data, you can keep partners informed to allocate resources based on forecasts.
Streamline Reverse Logistics
What do you get when you see a surge in orders? A huge influx of returns. Prepare by organizing returns areas efficiently and using appropriately sized storage media for returned items.
Use the Right Carrier Mix
If you follow us on LinkedIn – and I highly recommend you do 😉 – you know what we often say: working with a single carrier may not be ideal. A diverse carrier mix can help retailers manage unexpected spikes in order volume and expand capacity for faster delivery at minimal cost.
So how do you best manage the complex logistics of a multi-carrier environment? That’s easy: with an automated auditing solution like Betachon Freight Auditing.
Best of all, there are no upfront costs, monthly fees, or credit card requirements –try it for free and see how it works for your business.
This brings us to the conclusion. Are there any other findings that I may have missed? Please let me know. As I said before, these tips can be applied to the holiday season and any traffic-heavy time of the year (Mother’s Day, etc.).
Thanks for reading this far. And if you’d like a free, no-strings-attached meeting to discuss shipping solutions for your business, feel free to comment or DM me.