Blog Posts New Study Explores Trends in Ecommerce Fulfillment
To satisfy today’s “always-on” consumers, merchants are selling through online stores, mobile apps, third-party marketplaces, subscription programs and more. As the complexity of their business model increases, so does the complexity of their ecommerce fulfillment operations.
Saddle Creek recently surveyed a variety of merchants, including retailers, manufacturers, ecommerce companies, to learn how they’re addressing the challenges associated with selling online. Their responses help to shed light on the state of ecommerce order fulfillment today and provide insights into what the future holds.
How Online Sales Channels are Impacting Fulfillment Operations Today
The 2020 Ecommerce Fulfillment Trends Report provides an in-depth look at fulfillment practices today and how merchants are handling a variety of issues, including network configuration, technology solutions, delivery options and fulfillment outsourcing.
Following are a few highlights:
- The vast majority of merchants surveyed (86%) sell through more than one ecommerce channel.
- Approximately one-third or more sell via third-party marketplaces, social platforms and/or mobile apps.
- Ecommerce fulfillment operations have become more complex – with multi-node networks, sophisticated technologies and a variety of transportation strategies.
- The 5 biggest challenges facing merchants today include: transportation, scalability, inventory management, order processing speed and accuracy, and profitability.
- One-third of merchants outsource order fulfillment for ecommerce orders and more plan to do so.
- The vast majority of those who currently use a 3PL (77%) plan to increase outsourcing.
- Looking ahead, 69% of merchants plan to add sales channels in the next 12 to 18 months.