India is a land well-known for its diverse culture and rich heritage. Despite diverse geographies, socio-economic factors, and consumer preferences, the country stands united in a common obsession — the festive season. The last quarter of the year is choc-a-bloc with festivities celebrated across faiths, and is therefore also known to be the busiest shopping period in the Indian calendar.
For retailers then, it’s no less than a chance to strike gold in terms of revenue. At the same time though, it is also a time when their supply chain processes and customer service will be pushed to their limits. Higher than usual demand for goods means that logistics need to be spot-on, day after day. In addition, retailers are challenged with the delicate task of maintaining the demand-supply balance through.
● Forward planning
Retailers need to plan at least 3-4 months ahead of the festive season due to heavy demand of the product. It can be due to local preferences, traditions, and more. Same product sold across multiple locations could need a regional color packing option as a last-mile need creating pressure on the supply chain.
● Better customer experience and higher profits
There is a need to reduce the reverse logistics of customer returns and low demand goods. Timely availability of size, model, color, or any other consumer preference at the retail level needs to be serviced to meet and improve the customer experience.
How to ensure a stable supply chain during the festive season
● Timely delivery
It’s crucial to get products delivered to customers within the promised time frame as products might lose their value once the festive occasion has passed. To ensure zero misses in delivery times, logistics companies have adopted several capabilities such as multi-modal transportation, automated tracking, RFID, etc. They also have the capability to increase the number of delivery executives, vehicles, etc. to ensure timely delivery of products during these times.
● Smart consolidation
While logistics plays a vital role in timely deliveries and boost retail, it is also an important expense that can impact the end profits. Logistics companies can easily consolidate shipments through centralized warehouses and optimize delivery dates and time -- a task far more difficult for small and medium scale businesses.
● More warehousing space
During the festive season, the continuous flow of orders from customers can overwhelm the warehouses of businesses. In this scenario, partnering with a logistics provider is ideal since they have the capability to accommodate and rearrange shipments in their existing network of warehouses. Additionally, they can also lease new warehouses on a temporary basis at much lower costs than retailers.
To conclude, retail, from luxury to e-commerce, is an exceptionally price-sensitive business in the festive season as customers tend to buy products at a discounted price. So there’s always a price war between the retailers. Logistics, when utilized smartly, can prove to be a key factor in improving profits.
With H&S as your partner, you can focus on providing the best products, while we work on building and executing the optimal supply chain model. Get temporary manpower required to manage the deliveries on-time and in-full.
Our future-ready solutions help you improve service performance, minimize costs, deliver superior customer experiences — and scale your business to new heights and keep you on-the-go in the festive season as well. We offer temporary warehousing space requirements for companies to accommodate the sudden splurge in orders during festival and e-commerce sale days.
Source:
https://blog.locus.sh/how-your-supply-chain-can-accommodate-the-festive-season-rush/
https://www.logisticsinsider.in/managing-supply-chain-volatility-during-festive-season/