When Australia’s Temando raised $50 million in funding, it shared some interesting insight into the changing world of fulfillment and shipping for large retailers. Retailers must now have the ability to automatically recommend the most cost-effective shipping route from the retailer’s warehouse or physical store closest to a customer’s location.
For example, if a customer is located in Melbourne and a retailer has a warehouse in Sydney and a physical store in Melbourne, Temando’s software will select the Melbourne store, ensure the product is in stock, and pick the cheapest courier service that meets the customer’s delivery expectations.
In order to make that happen, Temando says retailers need to do the following:
- Unify inventory across multiple locations (for example in-store, drop ship and warehouses).
- Access multiple couriers and delivery options all at once (for example, Australia Post, TNT etc.).
- Reliably predict courier speed.
- Accurately estimate shipping costs.
- Determine consumers’ exact locations.
Temando says customers now demand a choice of delivery options – its software allows retailers to control the options consumers see in their shopping carts, and helps retailers integrate shipping systems with ecommerce platforms and optimize omnichannel (online/physical) sales.
With regional couriers, delivery lockers, in-store pickup, and, at some point, drone delivery, the world of ecommerce fulfillment is changing. Just as merchants have gone multi-channel, software solutions may increasingly help them go multi-fulfillment, giving customers a choice not only where they shop, but how, where, and when they receive their purchases.
