The annual peak season, starting with Black Friday and extending through the Christmas shopping period, presents a significant challenge for retailers. With total retail sales for the 2024 holiday season projected to reach £96 billion, a £3bn increase from last year, the stakes are high.
Black Friday remains a significant event, generating an estimated £13.3 billion in total sales last year, a 7.3% increase year-on-year. A key statistic for retailers to consider is that 84% of consumers agree that a positive experience with a retailer during Black Friday would encourage them to shop there again.
The Role of Storage Systems in Omni-Channel Fulfillment
Storage systems play a crucial role in ensuring smooth intralogistics for successful fulfillment across all channels. Retailers need to prepare their inventories early to meet customer demands across all channels.
The storage complexities of serving multiple retail channels in terms of speeds and order quantities put the focus on solutions for picking operations. A warehouse will need to accommodate picking pallets and caseloads as well as large numbers of single items.
Flexible picking systems are the answer. They need to be scalable to accommodate large variances in volumes, SKU range, and profile. This is not only for fulfillment but also for handling returns, which has a counter cyclical peak to fulfillment.
The Shift Towards Automated Storage
With labor availability becoming a challenge, many warehouses are considering automated storage. Automation is increasingly becoming a more practical and flexible solution for a greater variety of ‘goods to picker’ installations.
Automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS), shuttle racking, live storage for cartons or pallets, and Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) are some of the options available. These solutions can help meet the challenge of handling peaks and improve accuracy and throughput speed.
In conclusion, as the retail industry prepares for another peak season, the focus should be on optimizing storage systems to ensure seamless fulfillment across all channels. With the right strategies and technologies in place, retailers can meet the high customer service demands during the oncoming peak season.
