Studies of major direct to consumer companies show a high percent of customers (80% in one study) say ease of returning product is important to their purchasing decision. Studies also show a high percentage of customers are more likely to shop with an online merchant if the merchant offers “free returns”.
Read More >Many of the warehouse assessments that F. Curtis Barry & Company performs are initiated because a client perceives that its warehouse is out of space for receiving and storing product or creating more pick locations, thus limiting the growth of the business. Our approach to interacting with the client is to provide an experienced, fresh set of eyes to view the current layout and to envision potential revisions with the intent of gaining two to five more years in the existing facility.
Here are the top 15 elements we review when assessing a current warehouse layout.
1. Thoroughly understand the flow and utilization of the current layout, including rack configuration, slotting/pick philosophy, receiving, putaway, replenishment, inventory management, and packing and shipping. Include peak seasonal trends and a thorough volume analysis of inbound and outbound product flow.
In today’s world of constantly looking for ways to improve the company’s bottom line, many Operations are being asked to reduce costs or better yet, increase productivity and efficiency and lower cost at the same time. Here are some ideas and practices that we have identified from inventory assessments and warehouse assessments that we have conducted.
Most fulfillment processes are largely manual in nature; only the very largest companies can justify advanced automation. Take a look at your total cost of back end order fulfillment. We did by studying results from each warehouse assessment we have conducted as well our proprietary F. Curtis Barry & Company Benchmarking ShareGroup data. You’ll find that out of costs that include direct and indirect labor, occupancy, and shipping supplies; total labor generally makes up 60%-65%. (We have excluded shipping costs because it distorts comparisons.)
Like many of you, we’ve spent the past two weeks talking with our clients about the results of Fall/Holiday 2008. Here is what we are hearing, along with what our clients think the outlook for 2009 is and some things you can do immediately to further reduce expenses.
Virtually every bit of advertising and promotional material produced by multichannel companies during the holiday season has contained a common phrase: FREE SHIPPING.
In preparation for an article that will appear in the February issue of Multichannel Merchant, we tracked hundreds of promotions that arrived in our postal and e-mail mailboxes from August through December, and polled dozens of multichannel businesses on their free shipping strategies. What we found was an unbelievable array of opinions, conditions, restrictions and timetables. What we didn’t find was any kind of consensus on whether free shipping is a strategy that works.
As companies grow in size and complexity, providing actionable, analytical information to senior management has become increasingly difficult. No one system provides more than 10% of the data senior management needs. Key data such as plans and history often exist in spreadsheets outside the information systems. Systems such as the telephone phone switches (ACD) have valuable productivity and service data, but management usually doesn’t have access to it. Reports from commercial systems by software companies often leave the user wanting a lot more.
Maybe your business is not located in a hurricane zone or tornado alley but they aren't the only natural disasters that can occur that dramatically affect a business. When something devastating occurs weather related or not, it demonstrates just how important it is to have a disaster plan in place. You have to be ready for the unexpected.
A catalog executive suffers from no shortage of metrics to watch for: from average order value to email inquiry turnaround times to indirect labor costs to number of calls answered in 20 seconds or less. The real questions, though, are how to use the numbers, and if the metrics even are appropriate to track for your operations. Comparing operations solely on numbers can be misleading. Is it better to establish a set of best practices and then hold your staff accountable to them?
As this year comes to a close, many of our clients are turning their thoughts to how they can save money — both in their contact centers and throughout their operations — as well as starting to prepare for next year's holiday season. One of the best ways to plan for future success is to conduct a postseason analysis. In this first of a two-part series, I’ll explain how to perform a postseason analysis of your center as a baseline for customer service, process improvement and cost reduction.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to the postseason analysis.
