Fulfilment Centre - Middle-East
If you want to start selling via the eCommerce channel over vast distances, you cannot dodge using the services of a fulfilment centre. In eCommerce, retailers’ inventories are strategically stored in different fulfilment centres. Whenever an order is placed, the journey of that order to the customers’ doorstep begins at the fulfilment centre where the item is stored. After an order is received, the goods are packaged, labelled for shipping purposes, and moved to the designated logistics channel. There is a process to it, but that is how it works.
Why a fulfilment centre? Why not start an order from retailers’ workshops or warehouses? By using a fulfilment centre, eCommerce retailers keep their inventory strategically closer to their customers which shorten the delivery timelines. That way, these fulfilment centres act like temporary warehouses equipped to handle the eCommerce order fulfilment. This also means that none of the tasks like packaging, labelling, and shipping could be done earlier than at and from the fulfilment centres.
Whether it is a domestic or foreign retail brand (online or offline) and they have a target market in Dubai or UAE, their inventory will have to pass through one of the fulfilment centres in the city.
Challenges in managing fulfilment centres
If you are planning to build and run your own fulfilment centre in Dubai or within UAE, for your retail eCommerce business or thinking of availing a 3PL solution, or you are intending to build a fulfilment centre for eCommerce retailers, you must be aware of the challenges involved so that you could plan and prepare yourself accordingly.
Meeting the requirements of eCommerce
With eCommerce, the delivery game has reached a whole new level of competition and competencies. With product homogeneity, shorter delivery timelines give an edge to the retailers in securing customer orders. Choosing a strategic location for the fulfilment centre, robust inventory management and warehouse planning, agile order fulfilment processes, and right technologies strongly determine whether a fulfilment centre is equipped to handle eCommerce order fulfilment effectively, efficiently, and competitively.
Identifying the IT requirements
Managing fulfilment centres is a full-blown profession now. Therefore, one needs an updated understanding and knowledge of how these modern-day fulfilment centres work and what are the different functions involved in them. This will lead you to have a better understanding of the strategic IT software requirements of your fulfilment centre. Even the best of the eCommerce fulfilment centre consulting firms in Dubai or anywhere else need to keep themselves updated with the relevant technological advancements made in their field. But business and IT are two separate fields, and a businessman need not necessarily possess the expertise in both.
Optimizing space utilization
Real estate is an expensive affair in Dubai, and within UAE, there is an acute requirement for businesses to utilise the available space in the most judicious manner. The same applies to the fulfilment centres, which are generally large spaces and can attract high rentals or high costs of acquisition. Secondly, the layout plan of a fulfilment centre affects the volume of inventory it can hold, the number and dimensions of the shelves, zone allocation for carrying out different order fulfilment operations, safe and smooth movement of inventory and staff, and so on.
If the layout planning is not done proficiently, whether done internally or via the services of eCommerce fulfilment centre design consultants, it can slow down the functioning of a fulfilment centre, especially during the peak seasons or busy hours of the day.
Impact of inventory management
Like warehouses, fulfilment centres are also limited by a maximum carrying capacity. Despite getting a good number of orders, order fulfilment may get delayed if this threshold limit comes to the risk of being breached. To keep the inventory at the optimum levels, there is a need to effectively control the inflow and outflow of goods via accurate demand forecasting, use of analytics, better coordination with the logistics associates, planned reordering schedules, practical lead time estimations, reflecting sincere delivery timelines to customers, etc.
How YRC can help you in Formulating Omnichannel Fulfilment Strategy: a glimpse
Keeping in mind the modern-day requirements of retail and eCommerce, YRC (Your Retail Coach) is dedicated to providing professional assistance to businesses in setting up and managing their fulfilment centres or even choosing one. From operational planning to last-mile delivery assistance, we offer a comprehensive set of expert eCommerce fulfilment centre consulting services for Dubai.
We are a boutique retail consulting firm. To know more about our eCommerce fulfilment centre business consulting services or if you have any query, drop us a message, and we will get back to you.