The strength of an omnichannel fulfilment strategy

When looking into the world of omnichannel logistics, great focus can be given particularly to the concept of omnichannel fulfilment, meaning the art of fulfilling orders in a variety of ways, via multiple channels, bringing all the inventory into one pile.

With the ever-growing standards and options that consumers are requesting such as “fast delivery”, “next day delivery”, “delivery in two hours from now" or "order online and pick up in the store closer to you", businesses need to re-think about what kind of warehousing processes and online channels they need when wishing to implement the omnichannel experience.

Historically, when customers would order something online, their desired brand would pick the order, pack the item, and ship it them from their ecommerce facilities (separate or multiple ones). Today, with omnichannel fulfilment, the advantage of fulfilling orders smoothly in a variety of ways is there, no matter the size of the companies choosing this strategy. Omnichannel fulfilment allows to specifically fulfil multiple orders, across multiple channels and spanning multiple countries.

What is an example of omnichannel fulfilment strategy?

Brands, in collaboration with their logistic provider of choice, can achieve omnichannel fulfilment in several ways: from warehouses (fulfilment centres), from stores or from 3rd party partners. The key is to break the barriers between channels, to improve customer experience, increase sales, and lower inventory cost. This can be done by:

• Buy online, then pickup in store.
• Buy online, then return to the store.
• Buy in store, then ship from a distribution centre.
• Buy online, then ship from a store.

How can businesses set up omnichannel fulfilment?

Fulfilment centres emphasize order processing capability and features related to order process such as packing, waving, bulk picking, etc. In classic B2B fulfilment warehouse, businesses normally would have a setup for receiving, storing, and packing the cargo that were designed for very large, bulk orders usually at a purchase order level.

On the other hand, an omnichannel warehouse is different, as it handles incoming orders from all other possible channels. Today, through omnichannel fulfilment, businesses can focus more on delivering small orders, even down to the item-level, aggregating multiple small orders coming in from multiple channels into a combined inventory pile. To set up an omnichannel fulfilment warehouse, businesses need to:

• Analyse their channels and orders, size of returns, seasonality, etc. to determine what kind of omnichannel model should be implemented, what are the order interfaces with their end-customers, what are the key indicators for each order, and what is the volume for each different channel.
• Analyse their current warehousing set up, according to the nature of their produced items (as apparel, electronic, or else will need a different set up), looking into the packing unit for both inbound and outbound, what kind of labelling and barcodes are needed, what is the status with their quality control, their inventory, and additional services requirement. This also means looking into the layout design, the storage system, and the status of the current warehousing automation, if present.
• Rearrange their staff, recruiting and organising the training of new or present employees, based on the necessary skills that the omnichannel fulfilment centre will need going forward.

It's all about sorting resources such as people (management teams that understand how to manage an omnichannel fulfilment centre, distribution centre or distribution network) and assets (facilities and equipment used to manage orders and processes, at times automated).