With the surge in online orders since the outbreak of the pandemic, peaks have become part of daily business for many retailers. The booster for successful fulfillment is a WMS (Warehouse Management System) that manages stocks online and continuously adapts processes to the current order volume.
According to the German E-Commerce and Distance Selling Trade Association (bevh), the industry recorded consolidated growth of 23.2% in the first half of 2021. This corresponds to a goods value of around 45.2 billion euros.
It remains to be seen whether this figure will weaken again following the easing of restrictions in bricks-and-mortar retail. This is because people have learned to appreciate the convenience of online shopping around the clock. This means that it is not only companies that have not used this sales channel to date that are required to set up store systems online or with providers such as Amazon & Co. At the same time, existing logistics structures must be aligned with the new, multi-channel purchasing reality, which requires high availability of goods and short delivery times, and optimized from an efficiency perspective. These challenges can only be mastered with the help of a high-performance warehouse management system (WMS) that seamlessly maps the specifics of e-commerce in parallel with those of the store business.
Intelligent features, flexibility included
With the standardized yet individually tailored pL-Store® WMS from proLogistik, both B2C and B2B providers are always on the safe side. Both online stores and Amazon can be easily connected at any time. You have the option of changing or canceling the quantity of picking orders that have already been entered until they are completed. An online order can also be blocked via the control station before packing. This is useful, for example, if it becomes apparent that goods will not be delivered effectively. A transfer is then made to the setup station so that improvements can be made. As the pL-Store® WMS also knows the entire order structure, the required packaging material can also be automatically defined and allocated by calculating the volume. Another highlight is that the resources used for shipping e-commerce shipments are recorded. This is relevant for the packaging material held in stock and also forms the basis for container accounting and the customer’s invoicing. The software is equipped with an interface to DPD and DHL as standard. Other parcel service providers can be easily connected electronically at any time.
Sustainability at process and resource level
But it is not just about optimizing the status quo. Ultimately, with a high-performance WMS, users are also investing in the future and creating the conditions for continued successful and sustainable corporate development. The system is designed in such a way that, for example, an automated small parts warehouse (AKL) can be connected to pl-Store® or picking methods such as “pick to pack” can be implemented as requirements grow. Sustainability is also extremely important when dealing with packaging materials. Oversized parcels, which are usually sent with more “air” than goods, quickly become a real nuisance in view of increasingly environmentally sensitive recipients. The pL-Store® WMS also provides a remedy here by creating a process key that not only determines whether classic or multi-stage picking makes sense in the current case, but also determines the shipping carton – depending on the size and weight of the individual products. The label tailored to the respective CEP service provider is also generated automatically. This means that online inventory management is fully secured, including returns processing. This is of course also possible with a connection to Amazon.
Mastering disproportionate demand efficiently and promptly
If large quantities of individual orders from the B2C business arise in parallel, a flexible ad hoc response is possible at any time. Integrated intelligence in the pL-Store® WMS ensures that the classic picking and packing process can be skipped if necessary. With software support, the goods are then sent directly to the outgoing goods department, separated, notified to the courier and express service and provided with the automatically generated shipping labels including tracking number. As a result, short delivery times are guaranteed even when things get “hot”. The pL-Store® WMS organizes optimized processes at minimized costs and makes a decisive contribution to increasing the service level of your logistics in terms of the best possible “user experience” and ideally even exceeding expectations.
