One of the most important times of the year for logistics is approaching: Black Friday in Spain and Buen Fin in Mexico. A date marked by fire in our calendar, because it is the kick-off of a period of high demand which also ties into the Christmas campaign and the Discount Sales period. This is where the importance of our activity is most pronounced and we need to ensure that each of the gears of the supply chain works correctly so that everything goes perfectly, and ultimately to ensure that the consumer experience is completely satisfactory.
That’s why at Logisfashion we prepare well in advance, studying the market and putting operational efficiency at the forefront of our activity. Because every step counts in being able to manage high peaks in demand such as what awaits us in these upcoming months. But before we explain how we are preparing for the big day… Let’s see how the market is doing today.
Current context
The rise of e-commerce in recent times has changed the rules of the game of online sales by increasing the number of omnichannel customers (40% now want to buy online and pick up in the store) and exerting greater pressure on the supply chain and the last mile, as consumers demand increasingly shorter delivery times and an improved experience.
Therefore, companies must focus not only on increasing their sales. They also must focus on improving their services, because a high-quality product is useless if the service provided is not satisfactory. That’s why factors such as provisioning, storage and distribution are key to the shopping experience. The numbers don’t lie: 84% say they won’t buy from a brand again after a poor delivery experience, according to RetailTouchpoints. 98% say that delivery determines their loyalty to the brand. And, according to IAB, 72% prioritise one store over another due to offering better shipping conditions.
That is why the key factor of e-commerce operations entails speed, integration, high reaction capacity, flexibility, stock availability, the omnichannel, talent and motivation. And at Logisfashion we are ready.
This is how we prepare for Black Friday… and all the peaks in demand that come with it
The cumulative growth of orders that we have managed in the last three years has amounted to 298%. In figures, in 2019 we prepared more than 6 million orders and in 2021 these amounted to more than 12 million (33,300 orders per day). So we are prepared for everything that is to come. How do we do it?
- To cope with these high peaks in demand, we prepare months in advance by reinforcing our team to anticipate the flood of orders. A versatile team, which is connected in real time, which allows us to integrate visibility and management.
- We also optimise intralogistics operations thanks to flexible automation, allowing us to expand the operations tube and eliminate bottlenecks.
- Our Distribution Centres are prepared with multi-functional spaces that allow for more agile and efficient access to stock, are more productive, increase performance and profitability, are scalable, sustainable and can quickly serve all points of the national territory.
- We have real-time communication and information and full integration of our management systems.
In this way, for the Black Friday campaign we have worked since before August to make an approach with an initial forecast of sales per client, we determined what number of people need to be trained and elaborated a work plan with HR partners.
From that moment, we established a dynamic of work tables occurring on a weekly basis, whose objectives are to establish the final forecast with the clients, work together with the HR partners in the availability of necessary personnel to undertake the campaign, determine the training plans for each position and establish the work processes, without forgetting team motivation. The key is to plan things out down to the smallest detail so that the entire machinery works perfectly. And our equipment and technology help us achieve that.
In short, we strive to have a high reaction capacity, flexibility, operational efficiency, good HR management and, ultimately, confidence. Because after the click everything is logistics, so storage, system integration, pick & pack, returns management and fast deliveries are key to outstanding e-commerce logistics.
