As we return to work and normality after the Christmas peak and New Year celebrations there is one thing on the minds of many retailers – dealing with the returns headache of the post-peak rush and as such it’s the focus of our newsletter this week.
Research from LCP Consulting suggests that £2.5 billion of goods will be returned this year and yesterday was Takeback Tuesday – when the number of parcels returned per day was expected to double, according to the Royal Mail. Customers are becoming increasingly demanding of the ease of the returns process and as such it’s something retailers must pay close attention to.
Puneet Saxena, group vice president of supply chain planning at JDA Software reveals how technology can make the returns process less of a headache by allowing retailers a better ability to forecast returns.
The post-peak analysis will also be in full flow now that both retailers and their carrier partners can assess how they managed over the weeks leading up to Christmas. In an opinion piece from Malte Poppensieker, head of UK delivery at Gett Delivery, we find out how he believes the rise of new platforms that allow for more flexible delivery models will continue to change expectations around last mile delivery.
Delivery models are changing fast as those expectations change too. Customers want precision and convenience and a new breed of partners – particularly in the crowdsourced couriers market – is changing things fast. But are they powerful enough to topple the delivery giants? That’s the question posed by Andrew Mukerjee, CEO of Brisqq, this week.
We also have a case study that looks at how UK online grocery marketplace Farmdrop has raised delivery efficiency and cut costs with smartphone scanning.
Of course we can’t welcome in the new year without a few predictions along the way and in an opinion piece from Bobby Shome, business development director EMEA of Centiro, we have four key things that he believes will help to deliver supply chain change in 2018. What do you see happening in the market this year?
Wishing you a prosperous new year!
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