To compete in the e-commerce
sector, firms should introduce order fulfilment stores in key geographic
regions so that shoppers can receive their products quickly. Warehouse
operations can play a significant role in reducing delivery times.
The largest retailer in the world, Walmart, already offers a very rapid delivery service. Being the
parent company of Sam’s Club, it has decided to use its outlets to implement
more strategies in support of its e-commerce business. Last January, the firm
revealed plans to close 63 Sam's Club stores and convert some locations into online
order fulfilment centres. Some of these have already opened in Memphis,
Tennessee; Matteson, Illinois and Fort Worth, Texas. The average warehouse can
store approximately 1,500 to 2,000 products such as coffee, cereal and
household items. Another one in Worcester, Massachusetts will be opened on the
20th of May. Its general manager expects to fill and send out five
to eight truckloads of online orders per day. He advanced that this
location is “a really good road network that can get you to major customer
areas within a matter of a few hours”.
Several other grocers are also building fulfilment centres.
One example is Kroger,
which has already started construction works on its Ocado sheds.
Sam’s
Clubs stores are being converted into centres for online orders
Comments
Post a Comment