Set Yourself Up for Retail Success in 2020 With Proper Fulfillment Planning

The rush of the holiday season has passed and your retail business is ready to dive headfirst into 2020 sales. If, like most retailers, you're planning to make this your best year yet, you're probably looking to significantly increase your volume of orders. It's a noble aspiration, however, if you're unprepared to meet these ever-growing product demands, you may end up falling flat and disappointing your customers.

You can avoid this fate by getting a solid "last-mile retailing" plan in place now. If your fulfillment processes are slow or disorganized, the consequences can be costly. Out-of-stock inventory, delayed deliveries, and missing products can damage your customer relationships and hurt your brand’s reputation. It's important to be ready to handle an influx of orders at any time, especially during busy sales seasons.

If you want to be proactive about retail fulfillment and maintain high levels of customer satisfaction, follow these tips to help you plan ahead and optimize your processes:

1. Get your business systems aligned for holistic monitoring and management.

Before you invest in and implement any new type of fulfillment option, you'll need to get your various business systems for e-commerce, in-store, distribution centers, etc., fully aligned. While the value of fulfillment options like in-store pickup, office delivery, and local store shipping is obvious, these systems and practices must be carefully monitored and managed to make it worth it for your business.

Buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) is a great example of how a "convenient" fulfillment option can put a retailer in a bind without the proper oversight. Consumers love BOPIS because they can avoid shipping fees and pick up their product at a convenient time and location. For retailers, this option can lead to additional revenue, as customers often make in-store impulse buys when they pick up their online orders.

However, if you're not careful, BOPIS can lead to some sticky inventory situations. If you're not keeping an eye on in-store stock as you fulfill online orders, you might run out of inventory and lose out on regular in-store sales. If you fulfill online orders from a warehouse, you might miscalculate or underestimate the amount of stock to allocate to your store shelves.

Bottom line? If you're going to offer fulfillment options like BOPIS, make sure you have the appropriate monitoring and analysis capabilities to keep track of your inventory in various locations. Based on what you learn, you can prioritize the options that work best for your business.

2. Take advantage of predictive analytics and artificial intelligence.

Every modern retailer has heard of predictive analytics, even if they're not yet using it in their business. If you're unfamiliar, this technology helps retailers understand how much inventory they need to purchase and where it needs to be allocated (warehouses, store locations, etc.) for optimal order fulfillment, long before those orders are even placed.

Predictive analytics systems also provide better visibility into current consumer behavior and demand so you can forecast future ordering trends. Your business can proactively account for a multitude of factors that you'd never be able to track efficiently with manual processes. These factors may include (but are certainly not limited to):

• seasonality;
• geo-demographic diversity;
• competition;
• promotions;
• consumer demand; and
• current and future inventory levels.

Artificial intelligence-powered retail solutions can also help you seamlessly and cost effectively handle returns. For instance, such a platform can help you determine where to restock returned items, based on the store in which the product is most likely to resell.

3. Keep revisiting your plan and take advantage of slower times to optimize your processes.

While you should consistently be improving your fulfillment plan to prepare for an increased volume of orders, the post-holiday "lull" is a great time to review your processes and position your business for success in 2020. With a solid plan and the right tools in place, you’ll be able to ensure that every customer's order is complete, correct, and on-schedule.

Yan Krupnik is the director of business development at Retalon, an award-winning provider of advanced retail predictive analytics and AI solutions for supply chain, planning, merchandising, inventory management, and pricing optimization, with a transformational approach to the retail industry.