The Future Of E-commerce And Warehouse Management

It’s no secret that eCommerce is rapidly changing the way people shop. On top of that technology has been the cherry on the cake as it has revolutionized the supply chain management functions like inventory, orders, warehouse, and logistics.wareh

According to India Brand Equity Foundation

“India is the fastest-growing market for the eCommerce sector. Revenue from the sector is expected to increase from US$ 39 billion in 2017 to US$ 120 billion in 2020, growing at an annual rate of 51 per cent, highest in the world.”

You must have gotten a slight idea about the scope of eCommerce in the coming time. Let’s take a deeper dive into the subject!

Forthcoming Time: Operational Activities Of The E-commerce Industry

Before the onset of the eCommerce era, warehousing activities were done manually. It included the physical counts, stock location and updating the stock levels of the goods in the inventory. But with the advancement in technology, all the eCommerce businesses are rapidly employing automation and fulfilment software to manage their supply chain functions. Here’s how:

The Shift Of Focus: Personalized Customer’s Experience

The number of e-retailers continues to grow since the past years and customers don’t want to limit themselves to one choice. That is why they are consistently moving between online and offline experiences. Also, they are opting in specifically for the retailers who can provide with these transitions. And this balance can be struck only through Omnichannel retail solution.

Pulling Out An All-Rounder: Automated Supply Chain Management

To expand the eCommerce business, retailers are letting go of the excel spreadsheets and manual inventory checks and updates. It becomes necessary to have clear insights on when to replenish the stock to assist you better utilize warehouse space. It helps save on operational costs and meet market demands. Therefore, all the eCommerce businesses are opting for automated inventory to keep their tasks running at the right time.

Out With The Old, In With The New: Inventory Management

This is no secret that an advanced inventory management system automates the inventory update, replenishment, sales orders, deliveries, and returns to provide an exact stock position.

But how does it help in warehousing activities? Simple!

Real-time inventory information is updated across multiple locations (both offline and online sites and warehouses) simultaneously. The software comes integrated with online marketplaces to ensure your product visibility!

Wondering about the benefits? Have a glimpse:

• Auto inventory replenishment
• FIFO stock picking
• Regular cycle counts
• No ‘stock-outs’

A Change For The Better: Shipping And Logistics

Warehouse automation software comes with pre-integrated shipment partners. One can choose the desired logistics partner and assign the delivery of orders. No more hunting for shipment partners, negotiations and following up. With one click assign all the order shipments and track it! Or simply, enable the seller to ship the product directly to the consumers using dropshipping technology!

Chucking Out The Hassles: Digital Payment Methods

The way people shop has evolved in the world of e-commerce. Similarly, how consumers pay for their purchases has also evolved. This includes the use of a variety of digital payment methods available to the customers.

Smooth Functioning: Seamless System Integrations

The retailers maintain a range of software solutions for each function and employ resources to update those systems. No doubt, supply chain operations have a lot of processes to take care of. But handling the operations manually data has the risk of errors and duplications. Uniware is one such complete operations management solution. It seamlessly integrates with various functions and ERPs in an organization. This e-commerce solution is designed to assimilate and share process data without error on all the other ERP platforms.

The Chunks Of Change: Warehouse Management

Efficient warehousing is the backbone of the eCommerce industry.

According to The Financial Express,

“Warehouse leasing activity in the country grew more than 45% year-on-year (YoY) to cross 25 million sq ft during the calendar year 2018, helped by the expansion in the logistics sector, particularly the growth of online commerce.”

“The impressive growth in e-commerce has been on the back of favourable policy reforms, tech-enhanced warehouses, rising smartphone and internet penetration, digital India movement, among others. This has upstretched the share of e-commerce in overall warehousing leasing uptake in the country from 10% in 2017 to 23% in 2018.”

While a basic warehouse management software only manages the stock location and stock level of the goods in a warehouse. An advanced warehouse management software understands the dynamism required in a warehouse solution. It operates in an omnichannel retail scenario where virtual and physical marketplaces overlap each other.

Some extended features of an advanced warehouse management system are:

• Order routing
• Inventory management
• Logistics integration
• Reporting
• Returns management
• Order status sync

Implementation of the warehouse management system gives a competitive edge by:

• Minimizing labour expenses
• Increasing labour productivity
• Enhancing the customer experience
• Improving inventory accuracy
• Lowering shipment time.

To Sum Up:

The supply chain management is bubbling up with new technological innovations and disrupting the traditional ways of managing the operations. Different SaaS tools are providing an all-around multi-channel management solution. It integrates with different ERP systems, gives data insights and provides flexibility to streamline processes and optimize warehouse and inventory management functions.