2 min read
Easter is barely over before the barbecue and outdoor season begins around Whitsun. Halloween and Black Friday follow sooner than you'd like - and then it's Christmas again. These seasonal highlights have one thing in common: significant volume fluctuations. That's why special flexibility is required for fulfillment in the seasonal business.
Seasonal fluctuations and the promotion logistics
The seasonal fluctuations affect the entire retail sector, from food retailers to specialized online stores. "While in the e-commerce environment Black Friday is of course the most important shopping event with the biggest volume increases, in the food industry the holidays play a particularly important role. Accordingly, several weeks before major holidays such as Christmas or Easter, we see increases in incoming goods and goods turnover of around 20 per cent at our food warehouse locations, which then build up even further shortly before the holidays," reports Peter Goer, Head of the Logistics Department at METRO LOGISTICS.
Flexible fulfillment solutions for handling seasonal and promotional merchandise
In the case of seasonal and promotional goods, it is particularly important that the products are delivered on time so that they are ready for sale on time. Accordingly, it is important to be flexible in fulfillment and to be able to reliably handle volume fluctuations. "Due to our good planning and close coordination with our customers, seasonal peaks are also easy for us to handle. Here, we benefit from our total storage area of around 500,000 square meters as well as forward planning. Reserve zones with around 10,000 additional storage spaces each are also available at all locations for larger quantities at short notice. This allows us to store and handle more goods at short notice. This is because some goods - such as outdoor furniture in the last two years - are always in particularly high demand due to seasonal factors, and logistics must then meet the demand. Here we offer our customers sufficient space and manpower to implement flexible fulfillment solutions," Goer continues.
Reliable transportation for on-time delivery
It is not only storage space that is in particularly in demand at Easter, Christmas and other holidays or highlights such as a European Championship or World Cup. Freight space is also a highly competitive commodity. "Here, long-standing cooperations with several transport and CEP service providers ensure that we can guarantee reliable transports to retailers as well as to end customers in the current situation of shortage of loading space, even at seasonal peaks. After all, punctual and reliable delivery of, for example, chocolate Santas to the supermarket or the Christmas gift ordered online to the home is particularly important before the holidays," Goer explains further. Value Added Services for seasonal and promotional merchandise
When it comes to the distribution of seasonal or promotional merchandise, METRO LOGISTICS stands by its customers as a partner and, in addition to fulfillment, offers supplementary value-added services such as:
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Packaging
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Set building
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Display assembly
In this way, our customers receive an all-round carefree package for the on-time handling of sales displays with seasonal or promotional highlights. "We reliably cushion seasonal surpluses and are also available as a short-term outsourcing partner if our own capacities are not sufficient," concludes Goer.
