How COVID Has Affected the Ecommerce Fulfillment Industry
The last few years have been a rollercoaster ride for ecommerce fulfillment. According to BusinessWire, by 2030, the market size of the North American ecommerce fulfillment services industry is expected to reach $65.35 billion. As the COVID-19 pandemic triggered lockdowns and changed consumer shopping habits overnight, the industry had to swiftly adapt to rapidly evolving demands. This article walks you through the ups and downs ecommerce fulfillment has faced since early 2020.
Ramping Up Capacity
When COVID first hit, online shopping exploded almost instantly. As consumers avoided brick-and-mortar stores, ecommerce saw unprecedented growth. For you as a business owner, this meant skyrocketing order volumes. You most likely had to expand fulfillment capacity and hire more staff in a very short time frame to meet the surge in orders. It’s been a cycle of constant expansion to keep up with consumer demand. Just when you think you have enough space and staff, order volumes would increase again.
Dealing With Shortages
The next challenge you’ve had to grapple with is shortages in staff. With ecommerce growing faster than infrastructure and staffing can keep up, you’ve likely faced constraints across the supply chain. From raw material shortages affecting manufacturing to overloaded ports delaying container unloading, there’s been one shortage after another. As a business owner, prompt and reliable order delivery is your promise to clients. Fulfilling that promise has meant having to get very creative in finding solutions during unpredictable shortages.
Adapting to Delivery Delays
The combined effect of surging demand, inadequate supply, and lack of staff has been the inevitability of delivery delays. As a company, this directly impacts your reputation and customer satisfaction levels. You’ve had to focus innovation and investments on visibility tools providing order status updates to shoppers. Managing customer expectations with transparent communication has become vital. Offering faster shipping options where feasible or guaranteed delivery dates are also ways you can ease uncertainties around delayed order fulfillment.
It’s been a demanding couple of years in the ecommerce fulfillment industry, but the rapid evolution has also presented opportunities for innovation and growth. Going forward, the resilience you’ve built along with digitization efforts and creative problem-solving will help overcome future disruptions. If you're looking for a new fulfillment center, we can help you. Call KudaExpress today to learn more about our ecommerce fulfillment solutions.