How Supply Chain Operations Can Impact Customer Perception
Written by Leigh Williams, Founder & Managing Director of eStore Logistics
To deliver an exceptional customer experience, businesses need to provide reliable, flexible and reasonably-priced delivery options for customers. At the same time, the organisation must also have a unified view of customer demand, balance supply and demand, and identify and respond to any disruptions or deviations.
A modern, digitised and resilient supply chain is critical to achieving this. By understanding customer and supplier behaviour and optimising inventory and production, companies can reduce stockouts and improve the proportion of orders delivered on time and in full, leading to high revenue and customer retention.
Retail sector headwinds to be aware of
In the past, supply chains have focused primarily on minimising cost and increasing speed. Now, with the ubiquity of customer data such as cart abandonment and pricing data, as well as third-party data such as weather, companies can better understand changes in customer behaviour to inform forecasts and logistics.
Across the world, the retail sector is facing headwinds of rapidly changing customer needs and behaviours, rising operating costs and heightened demand for last-mile delivery. There are greater expectations for frictionless buying experiences; customers expect anytime, anywhere delivery with inbuilt flexibility.
The demand for immediacy through express delivery, more flexible return policies and end-consumers using subscription or rent models is significantly changing supply chain logistics and inventory flows across channels. Companies now need to stitch together the customer journey across their front, middle and back operations and ecosystems of suppliers and partners to meet new customer demands and expectations.
How supply chain operations can impact on customer perception
There is no point in having a great buying experience, if your supply chain processes are not designed to deliver on the promise. If a customer places an online order in two minutes, they expect the same level of response in delivery - two hours or two days, not six weeks. It’s important to have a supply chain that is aligned with the customer expectations that can offer fast, reliable and cost-efficient fulfilment and delivery.
Supply issues and available stock can also affect the customer experience. For eCommerce operations, it can be very easy to overlook inventory levels when fast fulfilment is a number one priority. This can lead to issues managing reverse flows such as new items and customer returns and, in turn, product availability.
How automation can support supply chain operations
At eStore Logistics, our customer promise is that orders made by 4 pm are fulfilled on the same day. We can meet these fast delivery standards for online stores of all sizes as we have deployed a fleet of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) to work alongside our human workforce at our warehouses distributed across the country.
Against a backdrop of labour shortages, using AMRs and other automated warehouse solutions can enable retailers to keep pace with growing eCommerce demands and maximise order fulfilment. It also allows manual workers to be placed in positions of higher value rather than physically demanding jobs.
The role of supply chain leaders today
Supply chain strategies are intrinsic to business strategies; an integrated supply chain can lead to financial and operational gains, a greater competitive advantage and increased customer retention. For example, more accurate sales order forecasts can translate into a more effective supply plan, which reduces lost sales.
The role of the supply chain leader has evolved in recent years to keep pace with customer expectations for service and personalisation and new customer purchasing behaviours. With the ongoing pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic, including global supply chain disruptions, labour shortages and rising inflation, supply chain leaders are getting a seat in the boardroom to support the customer experience and meet market demand.
