What are logistic operations?
Logistic operations is an important element of the supply chain and entails the movement of completed items from manufacturer to consumer. The logistics process as a whole includes inventory management, fulfillment and shipment of orders. Ecommerce logistics management covers a wide range of activities, from order processing to delivery. Inventory management, warehousing, and order fulfillment are all essential components of ecommerce logistics optimization. While larger businesses may have dedicated logistics directors to handle operations, smaller company owners typically manage it on their own.
Why are logistic operations so important for ecommerce?
The success of your ecommerce business is linked to the effectiveness of its supply chain, particularly if you sell on a global scale. Because there are so many moving elements in an ecommerce logistics system, proper tracking of ecommerce inventory throughout the process is essential. Too much product or too little may lead to deadstock and high carrying costs, or stockouts and shipping delays.
You’ll have a lot of loose ends if you don’t have organized logistics operations, which will affect both your profit margins and client satisfaction. Having a cost-effective, simplified logistics operations procedure in place will assist to keep logistics costs low, minimize risk and human error, and keep your consumers pleased.
Logistic operations: 4 key processes
Logistics operations include a chain of procedures that work together to optimize the supply chain, from manufacturer to seller, all the way down to last-mile delivery.
1. When it comes to logistic operations: Suppliers and manufacturers
The manufacturer or supplier is in charge of obtaining the raw materials, which is known as supply chain management. A trustworthy producer ensures that you receive a high-quality, sellable product on time and at the best price by tracking the work-in-process inventory stage (i.e., the movement of raw materials being processed into finished products).
Choosing the appropriate vendor is critical; suppliers that deliver a poor quality product or fail to ship inventory on time can cause operations to begin slowly.
2. Distributed fulfillment centers
Fulfillment centers are warehouses that keep goods close to the end customer, allowing for the quickest delivery possible by picking, packing, and shipping each order as soon as it’s received. A third-party logistics (3PL) firm is needed to handle ecommerce fulfillment for direct-to-consumer (DTC) companies. As a result, they don’t have to worry about filling and shipping orders themselves.
The ability to distribute products via logistics centers is another significant advantage of working with a 3PL. For example, Launch Fulfillment is a retail fulfillment firm that provides merchants with a large international fulfillment center network that allows them to split goods across locations and be closer to their consumers. This increases the efficiency of distribution and delivery.
3. Logistic operations: Warehousing
Warehousing is a vital phase in the logistics operations process, which involves storing and managing tangible items before they are sold. Warehouse management is made up of numerous components, including the safety and security of stored items, inventory control methods that help to optimize storage space, and much more.
These critical operational warehouse management systems keep track of where things are, when they arrived, and how long they’ve been there.
4. Shipping
Orders that are correctly and swiftly delivered to consumers demonstrate your logistics management’s effectiveness. Although the carrier ultimately determines how orders are delivered, you may pick which transportation options to provide your clients (e.g., normal ground shipping, expedited air delivery) and to which locations (domestic vs. international).
You may also choose to have items sent in-house, which generally entails standing in line at the post office. You can outsource fulfillment to a firm with access to low-cost shipping from major carriers and can manage the shipping process (and all other logistical operations) for you if you so desire.