Supply chain worries: Getting ready for the holiday shipping season

Supply chains in every industry are being inundated with mountains of orders during the holiday shopping season. Manufacturers and distributors alike have their work cut out for them as consumers and brick-and-mortar retailers request products at an ever-increasing rate through the holidays. Before Thanksgiving, the National Retail Federation predicted that 121 million shoppers were planning to order online this year, and after the fact, Wired reported that 150 million people used the Web to order products over the last weekend in November.

In the U.S., nearly 1,000 retailers are offering free shipping on their products on Dec. 18, according to Parade contributor Leah Ingram. Consumers everywhere will rejoice because some of their favorite products and gift ideas will be available for purchase without having to pay expensive shipping costs. However, the uptick in online purchases that this free shipping day will no doubt create may turn out to be a headache for those participating companies.

Supply chain issues

With the increase in shipping traffic comes a bevy of other problems. Fox Business reported that orders placed on Nov. 30 from 62 different retailers were delivered at a 20 percent slower rate over 2014, or an average of 6.9 days. As Christmas Eve and Christmas approach, retailers need to make sure they are ready for the deluge of both online orders and orders for in-store pickup. A Kurt Salmon study about Cyber Monday found that only 40 percent of in-store pickup orders were error-free, a troubling statistic that may reflect on businesses not being ready for the increased holiday workload – or at least not as ready as they thought they were.

What can companies do to prepare?

The numbers cited by Fox Business are the first indication that this holiday season may create issues for suppliers and manufacturers across the board. As such, it is crucial to have a plan for maintaining good business practices where shipping policies are concerned. Inbound Logistics contributor Merrill Douglas noted that in order to get a head start on shipping, it is important to take stock of product demand and make sure the products that are desired most are on the shelves at warehouses and retailers across the country.

Manufacturers and distributors need to make sure they are accounting for this increased package traffic in the coming weeks. Investing in the right supply chain management solutions from Inspirage could offer companies the leg up they need during this busy season. Solutions like a cloud-based analytics tool or Analytics-Enabled Rapid Supply / Demand Evaluation software give giant retailers and suppliers alike the oversight necessary to survive the oncoming deluge of shipping orders. Oracle’s SCM Cloud offering is especially useful when it comes to managing every step in the supply chain.

The first step in having a successful holiday shipping season is anticipating demand and creating a plan to accommodate heavier shipping loads. This requires logistics and management teams to work together – and collaboration is possible in the cloud. Contact Inspirage today for more information. It’s never to early to get ready for next year!

Chi Park | Key Contributor

Chi W. Park has over 9 years of experience in supply chain and operations management, focused on implementing Oracle Applications and improving manufacturing planning and scheduling processes. Expertise includes a broad range of areas including advanced planning and scheduling systems, forecasting, materials management, production operations control, finite scheduling, order management and purchasing. He has also served in the U.S. Army for 6 years as an Active Duty commissioned officer in the Armor Branch and was twice deployed to Iraq.