Peak season can make or break the whole year for retail and FMCG enterprises. Exploit the power of a platform network to overcome challenges.

Performance during seasonal surges defines the year for many FMCG and retail businesses. Infact, the difference between a strong or a weak peak in sales can be the difference between annual financial profit and loss. 

Winning during peak periods is hard. Many challenges can prevent your products being on the shelves, in the right numbers, at the right time.

If you supply Christmas tree lights, November and December are showtime as far as your customers are concerned. It’s no good to you, or your customers, if that late delivery is finally ready to hit the shelves for mid-January. Equally, you might be a soft drinks supplier to a country blessed with warm summers. In that happy event, you need to be ready for your transportation requirements to increase threefold in the hot season. If thirsty customers cannot buy your cold drinks because the refrigerators are empty, they will simply look elsewhere. They won’t care that the shelf is empty because your first truckload is stuck in a queue at the delivery depot and the second isn’t coming because you haven’t been able to source a carrier in time. 

Seasonality can also refer to your once-a-year big sales promotion. More of your goods on shelves means more truckloads, busier depots and yards, and more runs to assign and keep track of. All of which means more opportunities for things to go wrong and ruin the promotion.

We could go on. The examples are many and varied but they all illustrate a single truth: the obstacles to success are common to all.

The challenges

Let’s start by looking at the challenges that can ruin a seasonal surge campaign.

Transportation capacity

Transporting more goods, under more pressure, means it’s crucial to ensure adequate transport capability at all times.  This involves negotiating with carriers to manage costs, and optimising load planning for maximum efficiency. In short, ensure you have enough vehicles to meet every delivery deadline without exceeding your budget.

Resource allocation

Allied to the transport requirement is the need to ensure you have enough drivers and warehouse staff, where and when you need them. Too many and you waste costs unnecessarily, while some staff stand idle, too few and you run the risk of late deliveries, missed time windows, late unloads, poor use of space in your precious warehouse area and, ultimately, the spectre of goods not being where they should be.

Visibility

Whether it’s summer barbecues arriving from a production facility overseas, or a truckload of tinsel on its way to a local distribution centre or superstore, you need to know where your goods are at all times and, crucially, when they can be expected to arrive. This vital knowledge allows you to plan your resource allocation with much greater confidence.

The traditional means of addressing these three challenges will be familiar to many. The time-consuming study of historic sales patterns and customer habits, in addition to endless hours of spreadsheets, emails and working the phones to forecast and deploy the required numbers of goods, trucks and resources. Then it’s about preparing as best you can, by buying extra capacity in advance from carrier partners and contractors. 

Even if this all goes to plan, it can be costly. You will often be required to pay for extra capacity at above your standard contract rates, or via surcharges. You are also likely to be locked in on extra staff costs in order to ensure adequate cover, even if events conspire to spoil your forecast numbers and timings.

Theses hurdles would be so much easier to overcome if you had a mix of magic ingredients close to hand.The ability to rearrange delivery schedules dynamically thanks to reliable real-time data and demand forecasts, therefore wiping out those spreadsheet, call and email hours at a stroke; the ability to know the precise whereabouts and estimated arrival times, in real-time, of all transportation assets, simply by looking at a screen; and the worry-free ability to procure, assign and execute trustworthy carrier capability at short notice at rates you know to be competitive and fair for the individual lane or trip selected – once again, all without email and/or phone exchanges eating precious time. Any one of those, let alone all three, is great news for you and, crucially, your suppliers and customers.

Overcoming these hurdles becomes much easier with a few key capabilities, which will benefit you, your suppliers and your customers.

• The ability to rearrange delivery schedules using real-time data and demand forecasts, thereby eliminating hours of spreadsheets, calls and emails.
• The ability to track transportation assets' locations and estimated arrival times on a screen.
• The ability to quickly procure, assign and execute trustworthy carrier services at competitive rates, without wasting time on emails and phone calls.

Your secret weapon: Data-driven transportation management platform solutions

The good news is that the digital revolution has enabled all of the above, and more. It is now routinely possible to enjoy dynamic delivery scheduling, optimised resource management, real-time visibility and tracking of assets and shipments, and seamless collaboration and communication with carriers. 

The result? Improved tendering via automation, painless management of carrier constraints, and more cost-effective, time-efficient use of staff, vehicles, drivers and facilities.

The secret weapon is fully trustable, data-driven transportation management platform solutions.

Powered by data, Transporeon’s Transportation Management Platform solutions offer the flexibility and scalability to accommodate the needs of FMCG and retail enterprises all-year round:

• Freight sourcing: Market Insights provides up-to-the-minute data on freight rates, capacity and market conditions, enabling reliable forecasting and trend analysis for demand and resource planning. Combined with Freight Procurement and Freight Marketplace, you can run contractual tenders within your trusted pool of carriers and create tactical and agile mini-bids to proactively react to market changes and handle seasonal peaks and time-specific projects effectively.

• Transport execution: Transport Assignment is the key to assigning the right load to the right carrier, be it contracted or not. The solution automates load assignment and exception handling to find available capacity at the best rates. Driven by artificial intelligence, machine learning and behavioural science, Autonomous Procurement takes control of spot buying for you, so your team can focus on more strategic tasks.

• Real-time dock and yard management: Monitoring the status of your assets and shipments is essential during high-demand periods. Transporeon’s Visibility Hub takes your capability to the next level, with real-time tracking enabling you to anticipate delays, while Time Slot Management ensures you can proactively schedule deliveries and pick-ups at specific times. This brings you multiple wins. Fewer delays for trucks and drivers mean less idling time and, by extension, lower all-round costs and tighter use of expensive human and vehicle assets. Meanwhile accurate timings mean better communications with suppliers and, more importantly, customers

Peak season doesn’t need to give you sweaty palms. The unique deliverability of Transporeon’s digital platform network is ready to do the sweating for you, while you sit back and look forward to another successful campaign.