During the pandemic, supply chains experienced unprecedented and accelerated growth—and it shows no signs of stopping. This is especially true for ecommerce, which grew 44% in the United States last year—nearly triple the 15.1% year-over-year jump seen in 2019.
As with any booming marketplace, this also brought growing awareness and pressure to meet consumer demands. The rapid development of the supply chain industry supercharged manufacturers, retailers, third-party logistics (3PL) providers, and everyone in between to think about new and innovative ways to remain agile and efficient amid a post-COVID boom.
Now, in an already thriving marketplace, 3PL warehouses must prepare for the upcoming peak season while continuing to scale, remain nimble, and meet customer demands.
The rise of omnichannel fulfillment has made peak seasons even more critical for warehouses who look to take advantage of an expanding marketplace. Last year, online sales during the winter holidays grew 45.2% year over year despite the many challenges the pandemic brought with it. In addition, peak seasons seem to continually expand and can include other buying surges such as Chinese New Year or Prime Day, which helped third-party sellers make more than $3.5 billion in sales last year.
With so much business potential riding on peak season, how can third-party logistics warehouses prepare and plan for maximum accuracy and efficiency while remaining focused on current business needs?
Below, please find five areas 3PLs must focus on to prepare and plan for maximum accuracy and efficiency during peak shipping seasons.
As a best practice, conduct a thorough analysis quarterly at a minimum and monthly during high shipping times—especially if ecommerce is a growth driver.
Download the full playbook to receive additional warehouse audit best practices to operate more efficiently and guide future improvements.
One of the best ways to remain profitable and combat rising operating, labor, or real estate costs during peak season is using technology to automate and track operations.
Learn more about where your 3PL can improve profitability and what other warehouses are doing to simplify pricing.
Successful 3PLs will need to invest in comprehensive technology to meet demands and handle increased throughput both seamlessly and efficiently.
Learn how technology can play a role in meeting customer demands during exploding ecommerce holiday season sales.
It is important that third-party logistics warehouses understand the right level of visibility to meet the needs of the business and warehouse customers.
Download the report best practices on where to boost warehouse visibility to increase performance and drive improvement.
When looking to enhance the customer experience, transparency is best in building long-term and trustworthy relationships.
Download the complete report to learn best practices around how to improve customer satisfaction—especially for warehouses looking to build partnerships with retailers and DTC.
3PL Central is the leader in cloud-based warehouse management system (WMS) solutions built to meet the unique needs of the 3PL warehousing community. Serving as the backbone of our customer's operations, our platform quickly transforms paper-based, error-prone businesses into service leaders who can focus on customer satisfaction, operate more efficiently, and grow faster. Offering a comprehensive warehouse management platform, we make it easy for 3PLs to manage inventory, automate routine tasks, and deliver complete visibility to their customers. As the proven industry leader for over a decade, 3PL Central accurately manages billions of dollars in inventory and processes more than 1 million orders a week from any of our customer’s and their customers’ systems.
Interested in learning how you can partner with 3PL Central to help your warehouse prepare for peak season?
