eCommerce fulfillment automation using batch picking, pick and pass, pick-to-light, zone routing and order picking.
For almost all retailers, the online sales channel has become a strategy for increased market share and revenue growth to supplement the more traditional brick and mortar store sales. In fact, for some retailers, online sales represent either a majority or the entirety of their revenues.
The challenges that distribution managers face when trying to adjust to ecommerce fulfillment is simply stated: it's completely different. Distribution centers have a discrete number of stores as their customers. For most distribution centers, stores are not replenished daily. Rather, they are replenished once or perhaps a few times a week. The orders from stores have multiple line items, sometimes hundreds, if not thousands, and are usually wrapped on multiple pallets. They are shipped via dedicated, LTL carrier, or company trucks. Nothing about this model is the same as ecommerce fulfillment where there are an infinite number of potential customers who only order one or two things at a time, expect their order to be shipped through a parcel carrier of their choice so that they can decide the speed of delivery and can track it along its route.
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