How to drive retail competitiveness with supply chain transformation
In retail, if the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that the more adaptive and agile a retail operation can be, the better it can compete. Today’s consumers expect choice, value, convenience, speed and, increasingly, products that are made and delivered sustainably. The stakes are high: market conditions are challenging and the pressures on global supply chains are intense.
End-to-end orchestration, in real time
To survive and thrive, retailers need the capability to orchestrate their supply chains in a dynamic way. That’s why the concept of the store is evolving. Using a larger ecosystem of stockrooms, hubs, warehouses, logistics and delivery operations, retailers can get the right products to the right customers more quickly, cheaply and sustainably.
What enables these new ecosystems are digital platforms, real-time data and automated technologies for intricately managing every stock point, every time.
What enables these new ecosystems are digital platforms, real-time data and automated technologies for intricately managing every stock point, every time.
In-store operations, packaging and order fulfilment
Let’s look first at in-store operations and urban logistics. Real-time intelligence on exactly what’s in a stockroom helps companies to maintain lean stock availability. But today’s smart supply chains are about much more than that. Via urban logistics hubs and dark stores, retailers can offer ship-from-store, click-and-collect or drive-through collection options. If a size isn’t available in store, for instance, it can be shipped straight to the customer’s home. What turns this into a seamless shopping experience are digital platforms that orchestrate and automate processes end to end. Atos’ partner Hardis Group, for example, offers its Reflex Logistics solutions for optimizing logistics at any point along a retailer’s value chain.
At warehouses and other distribution centers, order fulfilment and package handling has been transformed by automation. Robotic pick stations can fulfil orders three times faster than manual alternatives. The same applies to store replenishment, with trucks loaded with aisle-friendly stock ready for put-away in store. That’s the context for Atos’ partnership with Berkshire Grey, a specialist in intelligent robotic warehouse solutions which, as we’re seeing, can increase throughput capacity by anything from 25% to 50% and reduce operational costs by up to 70%.
Optimizing last-mile delivery
Last-mile delivery is also changing fast thanks to technology. With the explosion in e-commerce, we know that retailers and their logistics providers face complex challenges. Customer demand and cost constraints are compounded by external factors such as traffic congestion and climate change.
Here, digital platforms, automation and real-time intelligence can help retailers in two ways. Firstly, logistics companies can use digital tools to optimize every single route to deliver fast while also cutting retailers’ costs and carbon footprint. Secondly, they can help companies to improve the experience of customers by giving them even more choice and convenience in terms of delivery options and order tracking.
Atos’ partner Woop, for instance, offers retailers a one-stop shop for servicing all their delivery requirements cost-efficiently and sustainably. For each delivery, its platform automatically selects the best carrier optimized against an agreed set of criteria – from urgency, size and location right through to the lowest-carbon options. Another of our partners, HERE, provides a digital platform for logistics providers that uses intelligence from multiple sources to plot the fastest, cheapest and lowest-carbon delivery routes for fleet managers and drivers in real time. Both Woop and HERE work in partnership with us as part of the Atos Scaler program, designed to accelerate innovation by start-ups and smaller specialist providers.
Seamless integration, compelling benefits
By reinventing how supply chains interact, retailers can turn each store into a strategic asset as part of a real-time service and logistics network. And they can keep their promise to customers thanks to responsive, high-velocity and high-volume stock management and order fulfilment.
One thing worth noting is that technologies need to be modular and scalable so that retailers can install them at brownfield as well as greenfield sites. Access to trusted partners with the right integration, process design and data expertise is essential to ensure that transformation is holistic and solutions are seamless with existing processes and IT systems.
While success requires a focus on concerted supply chain transformation, the benefits for retailers are compelling. They can empower their stores with more options for fulfilment, avoid stockouts, reduce operational costs, show progress on decarbonization, better monitor performance, disrupt the competition and, crucially, delight their customers to win loyalty and those all-important follow-on sales.
Posted on: 13/03/2023
