Everything flows
This morning, we received four packages from three different online retailers. This is not usually the case, but happens when you have two children at home.
Sure. Two of the packages contained children's shoes and clothing. A third package had headphones for my son. The fourth one was well-packed and contained household items as well as fresh groceries. It was a test order that was individually cut into slices for us. Everything came on time, fitted perfectly and was liked. There was no need for any returns.
The probability is 100 percent. The hoodie my son ordered came from the U.S. and landed at the International Postal Center (IPZ) at Frankfurt Airport - our systems are there. He ordered the headphones from the market leader in online retail. They use Bizerba logistics systems in their fulfillment centers along the entire supply chain.
My daughter found her sneakers at Europe's largest online fashion retailer. They are also a customer who uses our services. The KEP service provider that delivered the parcels has integrated Bizerba components into its intralogistics. This also applies to all service providers operating worldwide, including the largest parcel service in China.
Our involvement in the KEP industry began in 1993. We supplied over 40,000 of our accurate letter and parcel scales to Deutsche Post offices across the country. Now it's much more than that. The next step was system integrators, who were also well received because of Bizerba's quality and precision. They ordered components for large picking and sorting centers and remain our partners to this day.
Acquiring e-commerce customers was the next logical step for Bizerba. We are now well established in this sector. It has developed further. This also applies to our logistics solutions. For example, we have specially developed a dynamic continuous scale that delivers accurate results even at speeds of up to 3.1 m/s. We provide answers to these changes. This is one of the reasons why Bizerba solutions can be found in distribution and sorting centers all over the world.
We are all experiencing the challenges of this extremely dynamic and growing market in recent years. As a result of digitization, brick-and-mortar retail is merging more and more with e-commerce. Online and offline hybrids are becoming more common. National borders are disappearing due to networking and cross-border business. Online commerce is becoming increasingly global. New technologies open up more and more possibilities. They are also changing shopping behavior.
One example is the annual Global Shopping Festival in China: in 2020, at least 800 million people took advantage of this event. The peak value of this event was 583,000 online orders per minute. 56 billion dollars in sales were generated. This also reflected the latest shopping trend: everything has to be available at all times, and right now. New product groups, such as furniture or fresh food, are now part of the ever-changing assortment offered by online retailers. Consumers have an increasing number of options to receive their package exactly where they want it.
Consumers also expect shorter and shorter delivery times. Same day delivery seems well on its way to becoming the new delivery standard. In the fresh food sector, a segment in which we are very active on behalf of national and international retail customers, for example with our Rollbox loading stations, immediate delivery is seen as a trend. What does all this mean for the industry?
Logistics is becoming more complex. Delivery speeds and parcel volumes are increasing, as are the flows of goods. This increases cost pressure. For our customers and partners, it means they need reliable, fast delivery. The whole chain must be in order - from the supplier to the KEP service provider. This is exactly what our solutions support.
With pleasure. Reliability and control are two effective ways to ensure a smooth-running supply chain. If you can do that, profitability will follow. As for avoiding returns:
Today we received exactly what we ordered, in the packages we ordered, at the time and place we wanted them. This was possible in part because our systems checked the weight at pick, applied the correct shipping label, and used a DWS system to transfer all the shipment data to the WMS system in a single step.
Freight documents were created and the verified data was digitally delivered to the CEP service provider. Retailers and transportation providers have complete control over goods and costs. If there are any discrepancies, multiple checks along the supply chain ensure that everyone gets their money's worth - revenue recovery at its best. But back to the supply chain:
The path I have outlined, the interaction of precise logistics solutions, has ensured that the right goods were delivered to us the first time. All of this is becoming increasingly important as raw material costs rise and resources become scarcer.
That's right. All over the world, traffic in cities and metropolitan areas is increasing, and so is the risk of congestion. Of course, the growth of e-commerce is also contributing. To cope with this increase in traffic, city planners are developing new, sustainable concepts. Hopefully, this will also mean that, unlike yesterday, only one delivery driver will have to come to my house instead of three. In Singapore, they recently built a special lane for delivery robots - another way to avoid traffic jams. Time will tell if this is enough.
We are a solution provider that offers customers products and services from a single source. We do this worldwide. This means we can offer our customers the availability they need to manage their business profitably. From the very start. We advise our customers, on site if necessary, how to ideally integrate our solutions into their logistics chains. The Bizerba Application Management Team creates customized solutions that are based on throughput and speed.
Our customers appreciate the quality and precision of Bizerba solutions. However, they also appreciate the certainty we provide that in the event of a standstill, we can quickly ensure that everything can quickly be up and running smoothly in no time. Alternatively, we provide regular maintenance to ensure that it doesn't come to a standstill in the first place.
Absolutely. And we have them. We are a global company that has immediate representation on site for our global customers with over 40 subsidiaries and representatives in 120 countries. Our worldwide service network has over 1,100 Bizerba technicians, 100 product specialists and around 300 technicians from our partners who are available 24/7. We follow the sun! This also applies to rapid logistics for spare parts that also works overnight. We invest in expertise, manpower, modern technology and infrastructure so that everything keeps moving just as it should for our customers.
