Christmas is just around the corner. So when the cash registers are ringing along with Christmas bells, you can bet that the logistics centres in fashion are busier than ever. The right goods have to be delivered on time to all the brick and mortar shops. The ever increasing number of online orders still have to be processed efficiently. Intelligent omni-channel logistics solutions provide the necessary dynamics to ensure that perfect outfits arrive on time for the holidays and all the gifts appear under the Christmas tree just in time.
The gift that keeps on giving thanks to seamless commerce
True, it may be the most wonderful time of the year, but for many people, the weeks leading up to Christmas and shopping for Christmas gifts are also stressful. For several years, shoppers have been increasingly counterbalancing this stress by purchasing gifts online: In the USA, online Christmas sales for 2018 brought in a full 126 billion USD, up 16.5 % from the previous year. Fashion, electronics and toys were especially popular. Despite this rapid increase in online trade, brick-and-mortar retail remains very important. Consumers can hold items in their hands and try them out: According to one study, 84 percent of the people questioned said that this was an important part of their shopping experience. Wandering pleasantly through the stores, enjoying browsing and then ordering the items comfortably from their own home. The “seamless commerce” shopping experience brings together the advantages of online and brick-and-mortar retail.
“Seamless commerce enables us to shop whenever and wherever we happen to be. This gives us the greatest gift there is – the gift of time. This trend is also resulting in exciting new challenges for logistics centres,” explains Johannes Holas, Vice President of Fashion Solutions at KNAPP.
Seamless commerce: Wandering pleasantly through the stores and then ordering the items comfortably from home
For our customers, the Christmas season begins as early as summer.
Logistics centres are bustling with activity during the Christmas season. It’s long past being just about mastering the onslaught of orders. Punctual delivery as well as flexible options for delivery are now crucial factors for success in keeping consumers happy during the Christmas season. J.R. White, Senior Account Executive, KNAPP US tells how our customers prepare for this hectic period:
“While others are still enjoying summer, our customers are already making preparations for Christmas. They are stocking up on inventory to be ready for the coming seasonal surge in trade. Intelligent advance planning is the key for a smooth peak season. This ensures that everyone gets their gifts on time. Our scalable systems can grow as our customers’ demands grow. They can then offer their end customers fantastic service, no matter how quickly they are growing.”
Absolute precision in the logistics processes and the right performance at the right time are also absolutely necessary. Here is where an intelligent system design becomes really important. Thanks to flexible scalability, our solutions are so designed that plant operation is economical throughout the entire year and also has sufficient capacities available for the Christmas period.
Christmas wish – smooth operations during the Christmas peak period
As an established partner to the fashion industry, we are specialized in one-stop scalable solutions. Johannes Holas and Annette Sommer are two of our experts in the fashion sector. Here they reveal to us which of the technologies in our intelligent end-to-end solutions are an absolute must on your wish list for your Christmas business to run like clockwork.
The perfect pocket for the Christmas season
Annette Sommer, General Manager Dürkopp Fördertechnik UK, would like an intelligent pocket sorter solution.
“For seasonal peaks such as Christmas, distribution centres are doing a tremendous amount of sorting. Our intelligent Pocket Sorter is the solution for this demanding task as it has been developed for maximum performance and accuracy. Flat and hanging products – such as shirts, shoes or accessories, irrespective of whether they are delivered by a supplier or as a return – can all be transported and dynamically buffered in one and the same system. The pocket sorter will deliver a 100 percent sortation result in any required sequence. This is all made possible by our intelligent software. This is how the ordered Christmas presents arrive fast and in perfect quality at shops or directly at customers’ homes.”
Annette Sommer, General Manager Dürkopp Fördertechnik UK
Finding the perfect gift
Johannes Holas, Vice President Fashion Solutions at KNAPP, decides on the central storage system OSR Shuttle™ Evo.
“The end customers will still have to pick out their gifts by themselves. But to find those goods in the distribution centre, our central storage system, the OSR Shuttle™ Evo, is here to help. A wide range of articles together with overstock can be managed in one system. The corresponding software KiSoft always knows the exact location of each article. It not only manages the warehouse stock but also the dynamic supply of the articles. Each goods-to-person work station can access every article in the OSR Shuttle™ Evo at any time. This accelerates order fulfilment and ensures an even workload. We make sure that all the gifts are under the Christmas tree in time.”
Johannes Holas, Vice President Fashion Solutions, KNAPP
With this in mind, our experts and the entire KNAPP editorial crew would like to wish you a most wonderful holiday season.
Further reading recommendations
The holiday season is at hand. Are your fulfillment centers adequately staffed, stocked and equipped? Use this handy checklist to assess your retail logistics readiness.
E-Commerce brachte in den letzten Jahrzehnten eine der größten und weitreichendsten Veränderungen in verschiedensten Branchen mit sich, vor allem in der Fashion-Industrie, denn in der Entwicklung des Online-Handels ist die Fashion-Branche Spitzenreiter. Was dieser Anstieg für die Logistik bedeutet und wie Robotik hilft, Herausforderungen zu meistern, lesen Sie hier.
At the Fifteen Seconds Festival 2019, Gregor Schubert-Lebernegg took to the Technology Stage and enthralled the audience with his talk about consumer behaviour in relation to new technologies, especially with regards autonomous mobile robots. We also had the opportunity to talk with him about this topic.