No e-commerce without good logistics and mobility

All e-commerce companies have to deal with frenzied activity towards the end of the year. And it’s not all about St. Nicholas and Christmas anymore. Because nowadays there also has to be a Singles Day. And if people haven’t bought anything by then, they’ll go crazy on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. That is quite something.

Online shopping is an integral part of our lives. 90% of all Dutch people buy something online because of the wide choice, price and convenience. But at the back end of this process, e-commerce is facing two major bottlenecks.

Bottleneck 1: The logistical organisation

You will probably recognise the delivery vans that you see everywhere in the city. Every day, these vans are loaded with packages that need to be delivered as quickly as possible. And on top of that, 50% of those deliveries are returned. People find it quite normal to order three sizes at once and return the two that do not fit. Or to order five products and return all five. Free returns, right? It is precisely the fact that orders are handled so easily that causes headaches and the necessary logistics costs for e-commerce entrepreneurs.

In connection with the December madness, the logistics process is also geared to an average. It is set up as efficiently as possible for the entire year. And if the number of orders suddenly goes through the roof, you don’t have a large group of people on hand somewhere. Let alone an extra amount of equipment to process the orders. How can you anticipate such enormous peak times?

Bottleneck 2: Network and mobile devices

Many companies simply cannot cope with the extreme rush in the last two months of the year. Their network is inadequate and they do not have enough devices. And the mobile devices and printers they do have are not robust enough for the volume of orders that need to be processed.

Some e-commerce companies have got the message. They are making their processes more efficient. They invest in more robust mobile devices and printers, which reduce the chance of problems and malfunctions. If a problem does occur, they have already anticipated it thanks to good tracing. They build a powerful network. They work with robust equipment and with people who are well trained. In addition to this solid basis, they work together with a good partner who supplies Enteprise Mobility Management and who observes online. This can prevent many problems.

But even these parties find it difficult to arrange everything themselves. And what do you do if you are not such a big player?

You can also rent good equipment

No matter how well you do as an e-commerce company, in November and December the average amount of people and equipment is not enough. You need to step up a gear. Because buying new equipment is very expensive, many large e-commerce companies came to us in recent years. Was it also possible to make temporary use of new equipment? In other words: whether Dalosy could hire out that equipment?