An Ecommerce Sporting Goods company approached us for assistance with improving their 3PL warehousing and distribution requirements. The pandemic lead to a surge in orders as parents looked to provide healthy, home-based activities for their children during lockdown, but their current carrier, who also acted as their 3PL, were falling behind in processing both their imports and their outbound deliveries, leading to more and more customer service queries and deteriorating communication between the ecommerce company and their nominated carrier.
We sourced a 3PL that was able to handle their freight, (with many oversized heavy SKUs), and set about the task of moving their stock to the new warehouse. We also started to manage the transfer of freight from Port Melbourne; customs; and unpacking of containers to bring new imports to the new warehouse.
Concurrent to this was managing the backlog of orders to catch up to demand. Our backend systems such as our Transport Management System (TMS) and Freight Enquiry System enabled us to set up an efficient method of managing the pick / packing process at the 3PL, as well as the carrier pickups, and of course the monitoring of shipment deliveries to their residential customers.
Our Sporting Goods customer also has access to their data to ensure they have visibility on their freight activity and costs, including, carrier performance; DIFOT & POD data, and they also enjoy easy access to our operations team overseeing the whole process. This of course is essential for a business utilising the services of a 3PL; to have that level of real time visibility. We act as their 4PL provider in managing the whole process.
This required us to tailor a carrier distribution solution that was competitive, but as importantly, optimised to ensure the carrier matched the delivery specifics such as local, interstate, and rural deliveries, along with parcel vs. over dimensional freight. Many consignments required 2 man or tailgate delivery, and so the systems were set up and closely managed to ensure that the right service was arranged for every customer order.
Today, all aspects of their logistics: imports; warehousing, distribution; and customer service, are running at optimal levels, providing a turnkey distribution management solution that ensures speedy and cost-effective processing of their online orders, and the satisfaction of their customers.
If you’d like to learn more about how to improve your distribution management via 3PL sourcing, and 4PL freight management solutions including: the right carrier mix; and TMS and Ecommerce technology to support those services, then please contact us to learn how we can tailor a solution for your needs.