The customer service provided from point of purchase to delivery is essential for many customers in this day and age. Whether they’re buying from online stores or social media platforms. The expectations of consumers are becoming higher and higher. It could be argued that due to the benchmark of many being Amazon Prime’s next day or sometimes even same-day delivery, it has become even harder for many businesses to be on the same level.
To live up to this standard of expectation, there needs to be effective stock management and fulfillment process in place.
There is track and trace technology such as label barcoding which is essential to making this process as efficient as possible. This combines these barcodes with scanners, enabling staff to manage stock visibility and provide better connectivity of knowledge over the stock handling process.
Technology is undoubtedly enabling businesses to be able to increase their fulfillment speed. However, with this technology comes another problem of maintaining connectivity. If these systems fail, it can cause major issues and backlogs. The whole supply chain can stall to a halt if major issues occur, which can have inherent significant costs.
Optimizing Logistics
There is a large amount of data that can be obtained when using a track and trace system. This can provide managers with a significant amount of valuable information which can be utilized to improve and optimize the logistics operation.
By tracking shipments throughout the whole process, a business can quickly assess the status and parameters of their goods at different points throughout the logistics process. With more clarity and transparency, a business can have better control over the quality of its service. This is exercised by reducing errors in the logistics process, which can have a significant impact on cost savings.
Improving Inventory Management
Having an effective track and trace system set up will allow a business to know their inventory levels throughout the supply chain, which makes stock management far more efficient.
Track and trace significantly reduce the time it takes to find the location of goods and use analytics to assess key performance indicators. This has a benefit over inventory management by allowing a logistics team to conclude the average time it takes to receive stock, as well as how long it takes for customers to receive it. This technology combined with an effective analysis of what stock is being purchased will allow a team to work towards minimizing stock holding times, one of the largest costs to businesses. With reduced stock holding times, a business can often significantly reduce its associated costs (warehouse, stock loss, security, etc).
Reduction of Customer Support
Due to the extra transparency that is associated with tracking delivery, there is often a reduction in the need for customer support. Before track and trace being commonplace, businesses would be inundated with requests of “where is my order?” While comparatively now, the vast majority of customers will be happy just seeing that their order is moving through the process with effective tracking. With track and trace, businesses can reduce the risks throughout the supply chain, and therefore reduce the likelihood of support being required for customers. This has an inherent benefit to the overall customer service experience.
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