
4 Tips: Improve Profitability Despite Rising Transportation Costs
Feeling the pinch of carrier surcharges and other rising transportation costs?
Feeling the pinch of carrier surcharges and other rising transportation costs?
The COVID pandemic accelerated many trends in consumer behavior. It exposed risks both on the supply and demand sides of the supply chain. Supply chain strategy now needs to consider many of the adopted behaviors to be permanent. Companies have to be able to support multiple fulfillment channels, efficiently handle returns and insulate themselves from regional disruptions across the globe.
Much like a successful marriage, the relationship between a shipper and its logistics partner has to be mutually-beneficial, trust-based and productive. Without these qualities, one or both parties will quickly find themselves wondering why they entered into the agreement.
If you can’t pinpoint which products are and aren’t making your company money, it’s time for a thorough SKU-level profitability assessment.
The role of e-commerce in keeping the United States and world economies going was never more evident than during the first half of 2020. Before the global pandemic and the lock-downs and shelter-in-place orders that followed, e-commerce comprised about 12 percent of U.S. retail sales. That percentage will grow dramatically in the years ahead. Consumers who once gathered in malls and stores to do their buying found that e-commerce had become their only buying source, almost overnight. Many who had never tried online purchasing found it easy and convenient. Retail will never be the same again. Never.
In Albert Einstein’s famous equation “E=mc2,” both energy and mass are replaceable with one another. But the constant measurement of time cannot be changed.What he essentially confirmed for generations beyond him is the inherent value of time. We cannot slow down time, nor can we control the passing of time. We can change how we react in the present, and use lessons learned to affect chain reactions as they happen in time.
For many organizations, a rear-view perspective on the COVID-19 pandemic reveals opportunities for course corrections that might have prevented costly missteps or customer service failures. Hindsight is always clear, and under normal circumstances, disruption cause-and-effect analysis is integral to process change.
No matter how you manage it, transformation always comes with costs. When moving from a single, lowest-cost supply chain source to a supply web of primary and alternate sources supporting multiple options to satisfy customer demand, your company will experience new cost challenges from across the developing network.
As the global pandemic confined consumers to their homes, record volumes of online sales motivated retailers to adjust online fulfillment strategies and capitalize on emerging demands for food, health and safety necessities, home office/school supplies – even exercise equipment and entertainment products.