E-Commerce
The e-commerce industry has boomed over the last few decades, providing consumers with fast and convenient product deliveries straight to their homes. As e-commerce shopping continues rising in popularity, the need to remain competitive in this industry has become more crucial than ever. What many online businesses don't realize is that e-commerce warehouse logistics play a major role in their success.
E-commerce warehousing is the process of storing, managing and distributing goods intended for online sale. These operations are critical to your company's supply chain, ensuring timely deliveries to your customers. You can optimize your warehouse management and set your business apart from competitors by implementing e-commerce fulfillment automation solutions into your facility.
At Siggins, we serve as your dedicated engineering team, helping you secure reliable and efficient e-commerce warehouse design solutions that reflect your individualized business objectives. With over seven decades of service under our belts, we're the industry experts you can trust.
Common E-Commerce Warehouse Logistics Challenges
More brick-and-mortar stores have begun enhancing their e-commerce capabilities to keep up with the growing competitive landscape. However, this spike in online ordering created many challenges for the e-commerce industry.
1. Slow Shipping Speeds
The introduction of expedited shipping in e-commerce organizations has increased consumer expectations for delivery speeds. Most modern consumers place small but frequent orders, giving warehouses for e-commerce higher order quantities to fulfill at more rapid rates.
Companies with poor order fulfillment processes cannot keep up with constant product orders according to customer expectations, resulting in slow deliveries. Customers who don't receive their orders on time may become dissatisfied with your service, causing you to lose customers to competing e-commerce stores.
2. Poor Inventory Management
Inventory management is one of the most important aspects of your company's warehouse. Today, smart e-commerce storage solutions are necessary for meeting the e-commerce industry's lofty demands.
Businesses without advanced e-commerce warehouse management solutions in their facilities sacrifice efficient order fulfillment. Without streamlined product handling processes, workers spend too much time locating inventory throughout the warehouse, resulting in delivery delays.
3. Inefficient Product Returns
Managing product returns is a necessary part of the order fulfillment and reverse supply chain processes. However, returns pose many challenges to e-commerce businesses, as companies without brick-and-mortar stores are forced to return these products to their warehouses. As a result, they endure significant losses due to shipping, processing and restocking expenses. That's why it's crucial that e-commerce organizations are adequately prepared to accept, assess and restock returned products to earn revenue from these items.
4. Product Damage
Every e-commerce company has to deal with the aftermath of damaged products. When items break during the shipping and handling processes, your business has to take many measures to right these wrongs, such as:
Managing product returns.
Inspecting returned products for damage.
Replacing or repairing the product.
Offering additional customer service.
Providing refunds.
Offering future discounts.
Product damage often results from poor packing processes. Your product packaging operations must be diligent and efficient to minimize the risk of product damage.
5. Flawed Backorder Handling
Backorders occur when a customer places an order for a product that's out of stock. Backorders indicate that a company's product demand outweighs its supply, impacting the amount of time it takes for customers to receive their orders. Instead of waiting for backordered products to come in, many customers will do business with a different company that can satisfy their requirements promptly.
While backorders are harmful to businesses, companies can't afford to overstock their facilities to prevent these occurrences. The key to minimizing backorders is analyzing historical data to predict future demands and respond accordingly.
E-Commerce Warehouse Management Solutions
You can resolve all of your most pressing e-commerce fulfillment challenges with products and services from Siggins. We work with our customers directly to analyze pain points within their warehouses and create state-of-the-art material handling solutions to address them. By evaluating your e-commerce warehouse design and operations, we can better serve you with individualized solutions geared toward your unique business objectives.
Material Handling and Storage Products
Our team is dedicated to providing customers with top-quality material handling equipment and technologies that help e-commerce companies fulfill their orders quickly and accurately while adapting to the ever-changing market. Our streamlined systems are supported by the latest technologies, helping users improve their inventory management and order fulfillment processes and keep up with their customers' needs.
When you come to us for e-commerce warehouse management solutions, you can invest in any of the following material handling and storage products:
- Conveyors
- Mezzanines
- Order picking and processing
- Robotic picking
- Safety products
- Palletizers
- Storage
- LED lighting
- Modular offices
- Stretch wrappers
- Warehouse management and controls
Facility Design, Survey and Installation Services
We're dedicated to helping our customers acquire the information, equipment and solutions needed to operate their warehouses at optimal capacity. That's why we offer a wide range of services to aid companies in determining their current operational standing and achieving maximum productivity with top-quality equipment processing solutions and cutting-edge safety protocols.
You can take advantage of any of the following warehouse design, survey and installation services to improve your warehousing processes:
Design-build services and layout improvement
Distribution center retrofits
Installations
Facility surveys
Safety surveys
Engineering surveys
Lighting surveys
Simulations
E-Commerce Fulfillment Automation Case Study
Siggins recently undertook an e-commerce project for Ferro, a functional coatings and color solutions provider looking to improve its operations by transforming its Norcross, Georgia, location into a paperless facility. We responded by making changes to Ferro's existing system design and controls. Then, we used Siggins eWMS™ to incorporate these changes into their everyday operations. Siggins eWMS is a comprehensive technology solution that automates operational and management processes for distribution centers.
Our automated e-commerce fulfillment solution allowed supervisors to assign tasks in real time, track worker and distribution center performance, gain virtual facility views, and control automated guided vehicle (AGV) forklift paths. As a result, Ferro experienced:
- Greater visibility.
- Increased customer service.
- Lower operating costs.
- Better personnel and resource management.
- More inventory turns.
- Near 100% accuracy.
Invest in Innovative E-Commerce Warehouse Solutions From Siggins Today
You can improve operations within your warehouse with e-commerce distribution technologies and solutions from Siggins. We provide our customers with superior material handling software and equipment to help companies achieve sustainable, long-term growth and gain the highest return on investment (ROI). When you work with us, you can feel confident we'll never walk away from a project until your systems are operating efficiently.
Contact us to get started with our solutions today!
