Last Mile: How to Process Customer Orders Faster with Micro-Fulfilment [5 Reading Tips]

Faster, more flexible, more individual. This is what customers expect when ordering online. Whether it is groceries, shoes or household goods: ideally, customers have ordered items delivered to their homes on the same day or can pick them up in store.

For marketplace giants like Amazon, this goes without saying, but for retailers, it poses an enormous challenge. Thanks to micro-fulfilment, however, this challenge is no longer impossible to overcome.

Last Mile: Micro-Fulfilment Centres Are Closer to Customers

The new customer expectations require new logistics concepts that reduce the time it takes to reach customers. For example, decentralised mini hubs can be used to store and pick products.

Micro-fulfilment centres (MFC) are either located directly in store (stationary fulfilment) or are set up as stand-alone solutions. Since they require less space than conventional logistics centres, they can be implemented directly in city centres and thus shorten delivery times to customers.

However, the solution also saves time and personnel resources during the picking process itself. Instead of having to search for products individually, employees can access them all in one place thanks to the goods-to-person principle. The result: with an MFC, five times more online orders can be processed than in a traditional online shop with manual order picking.

Micro-fulfilment centres are particularly useful when many small and heterogeneous orders are to be made available to customers in a timely manner. Grocers and food delivery companies in particular benefit from micro-fulfilment processes because they can stand out with a wide range of fresh products.

Last Mile: Micro-Fulfilment Pays Off

First of all, the implementation of the logistics concept requires adequate premises that function as a warehouse. Stocks must then be managed in a higher-level ERP system, for example, which is connected to an online shop in order to keep availabilities up to date. It is also necessary to clarify how orders reach customers. Local courier services are suitable for this, as large parcel service providers do not offer direct delivery from store.

Companies that implement these requirements can benefit from the following advantages:

MFCs can be implemented faster and more flexibly than large logistics centres
Customers can be reached more quickly
More orders can be processed in the same time
Labour-intensive and time-consuming manual order picking is replaced

Last Mile and More Retail Trends at the K5 Conference: Arrange an Appointment with the dotSource Digital Coaches Now!

After a two-year break, the latest trends in e-commerce will be presented in Berlin on the 29th and 30th of June. For two days, there will be exciting insights from successful retail companies, many networking opportunities and, above all, lots of fun!

In Hall 2 at Stand 160, you can talk to the dotSource digital coaches over coffee and sweets and get tips and inspiration for your digital projects. Arrange an appointment with one of our coaches now! We are looking forward to meeting you!