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Supply Chain: The Twilight Of Hyper-Globalization

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Tigers Opens UK Facility Despite Brexit Environment

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Tigers Opens UK Facility Despite Brexit Environment

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As e-commerce demands continue to increase, global solutions provider, Tigers, announced its new Thurrock facility this week. The new facility will serve as a larger space for operations currently held at the company’s Basildon location and adds an additional 50 jobs to the company’s employment portfolio.

“We have always viewed the UK as an important market and remain committed to investing in the expansion of our e-commerce and fulfillment operations,” said Andrew Jillings, CEO, Tigers. “The Thurrock facility significantly expands our UK presence and provides us with a strategically located hub to cater for increased customer demand.”

Located near the London Gateway off the M25, the facility’s location provides an advantageous location close to all main road routes to the Midlands, Wales, northern England, and Scotland. The expansion will also continue efforts for UK-investment goals.

“This is a multi-million-pound investment by Tigers in the UK, despite Brexit, and not only will it create new jobs, it will also secure our future as a leader in the logistics and supply chain industry as e-commerce demand continues to grow,” said Shahar Ayash, Managing Director UK and Europe, Tigers.

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Walmart Supply Chain Reveals E-Commerce Provider of the Year

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Pilot Freight Services was officially announced as Walmart Supply Chain’s selection for “E-Commerce Provider of the Year,” taking the spot for one of the six annual award categories for transportation providers.

 “2018 was a year of unprecedented change in the transportation industry. As our supply chain network has evolved with greater efficiency and new ways of working, so have many of our carrier partners’,” said Ken Braunbach, vice president of Inbound Transportation for Walmart. “The companies recognized have provided Walmart with innovative and improved service offerings that ultimately help us lower our cost to our customers and stay in stock, both on the shelf in our stores or online.”

The global transportation and logistics services provider achieved this status as a result of the company’s operational excellence across its extended network which includes Walmart e-commerce deliveries for all stations. Additionally, the company provided services that ultimately supported Walmart Supply Chain’s customer-focused service requirements.

“It is an honor to be recognized by Walmart as a provider that innovates, improves services and lowers costs to customers,” said Gordon Branov, chief executive officer of Pilot Freight Services. “Our dedicated employees continue to go above and beyond for our clients to create customized solutions and provide an outstanding customer experience while impacting the bottom line. That is exactly what Pilot strives for every day.”

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GEODIS Confirms Oberhausen Warehouse for E-Commerce

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Summer 2019 will be one of expansion for global supply chain operator GEODIS. The company announced plans to open a new 40,000 square-meter logistics center with an innovative warehouse concept in Oberhausen and hire approximately 500 employees to support operations.

“We have been pursuing a very successful growth strategy in this market segment for years,” said Thomas Kraus, President & CEO North, East and Central Europe.

“The demand for modern and innovative logistics concepts in this area is high, because the goods are to be delivered to the end customer as quickly, cost-effectively and efficiently as possible. Thanks to our many years of experience, we have been able to develop a high level of expertise and concrete unique selling propositions in this area. This makes e-commerce one of our core competencies, both in Germany and internationally,” adds Kraus.

The company aims its focus on the opportunities in the e-commerce sector, designating six of its 14 logistics centers to e-commerce initiatives and operations. Through these initiatives, GEODIS navigates a rapidly growing e-commerce environment, seen primarily in Germany.

Source: GEODIS

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RSL AND THE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF ORDER FULFILLMENT

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Order fulfillment can be labeled as the least appealing part of the e-commerce lifecycle. However, as unappealing as it is, order fulfillment is integral to the shopper and retailer. On its simplest level, an order that is placed must be shipped out. So, how can an order fulfillment 3PL be a competitive advantage for retailers?

Rakuten Super Logistics (RSL) is a leading 3PL that operates a nationwide network of 12 order fulfillment facilities. With such an expansive network, RSL is uniquely positioned to provide the competitive advantage that many retailers need.  “The RSL network opens the marketplace to choice and flexibility,” says Michael Manzione, CEO of Rakuten Super Logistics. “Scaling up and down is invaluable and, depending on your size and need, you can utilize our two-day delivery network or drill down to further locate your product closer to the end consumer.”

While RSL is among the 3PLs with the most expansive U.S. networks, they are not stopping there. They recently announced plans to open an additional six U.S. facilities by the end of the year. Their expansion will include the major metropolitan cities of Houston and Los Angeles.

“Our continued expansion into major metropolitan markets is a commitment to our customers,” Manzione says. “Our larger footprint will facilitate our ability to deliver our clients product to their customers via next day ground and even same day in some cases.”

Meeting a client’s demand is always a priority. This is evident in RSL clients that practice Just In Time (JIT) inventory from overseas. When executed properly, JIT is a competitive advantage as the inventory system increases efficiency and decreases waste by receiving product as it is ordered, thereby reducing inventory costs.

Rakuten Super Logistics’ 12 facilities are all located near major shipping ports, which reduces the time from when a product enters the country to when it is received in the warehouse. That close proximity to major container ports allows RSL clients to keep lower inventory levels, thereby reducing their costs while leaving room for scalability.

Scalability is a huge advantage for retailers that have seasonal lifecycles. Take Black Friday as an example. In 2018, Black Friday e-commerce sales in the U.S. topped $6.2 billion, dwarfing the $5 billion in 2017 Black Friday sales.* The strain on 3PLs was enormous but managed through valuable resources. However, many retailers who managed order fulfillment in-house could not meet the increased customer demand.

Operating a vast network of facilities, RSL provides more than just the ability to scale. It provides significant cost savings to its clients. “Our approach to serving the small to middle-size e-commerce companies allows them to compete equally with their larger competitors at a competitive rate,” says Manzione.

Rakuten Super Logistics negotiates shipping rates with the major carriers based on their large-scale shipping volumes. This means that when an e-commerce retailer partners with RSL, they receive the reduced, negotiated shipping rates.

“With the USPS First Class Packages service structure change to zone-based pricing, all e-commerce retailers must consider how to locate their product closer to their customers,” Manzione notes. The zone-based pricing structure will leave many retailers sticker shocked–the cost to ship a one-pound package from LA to New York will be significantly higher.  Leveraging Rakuten Super Logistics’ shipping rates will help keep these costs more manageable.

The savings isn’t always bottom line either. “We have built a great two-day ground network and now want to offer additional choices for those seeking same day and next day delivery, while maintaining lower shipping costs,” Manzione says. “Technology is the key to our success. In 2018, we implemented ‘picker-robots’ developed by California-based inVia. The picker robots help increase production and order accuracy. Technology and innovation have been the backbone of Rakuten Super Logistics. We continue to implement the latest technology.”

Manzione continues: “The exponential growth in e-commerce couldn’t have been accomplished without significant changes to logistics. Rakuten Super Logistics has been on the forefront of 3PL innovation; from using robotics to zone skipping, Rakuten Super Logistics provides clients with a competitive advantage to succeed in the tough online space.”

Source: Statista

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5 Key Logistics Trends and Technology Implications for 2019

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What an exciting year 2018 was in logistics and transportation management! Many companies started to reach beyond traditional strategies and approaches to take their logistics and transportation capabilities to new levels. Ecommerce continued to grow at record levels and there didn’t appear to be the slowdown that many were predicting. There was considerable global trade instability and the focus of many companies was to determine what strategies they needed to put in place to mitigate the brewing trade wars and Brexit uncertainty. Market hype was also at an all-time high, making it harder to identify the best opportunities for technology investments. The question now for logistics and transportation professionals is what will drive 2019 strategies and investments to meet the market challenges and provide the greatest returns.
Here are my thoughts on five key trends for 2019.

Collaborative Transportation Management

The concept has been discussed, but never realized on a large scale. With the capacity shortage continuing for the perceived future, shippers and LSPs are looking for ways to expand their network. Real-time visibility solutions can identify the capacity that is trapped in a given network. New solutions have been developed to allow companies to share capacity and cover a greater percentage of the loads. Work in 2018 has shown that, as the number of participants expand, the ability to dramatically increase available capacity rises. Collaborative transportation management will be the fastest way in 2019 for shippers and LSPs to meet their transportation capacity challenges.
 

The Global Trade Scramble

For many shippers and LSPs, there is no choice but to spend a lot of time and effort on strategies and tactics to mitigate the impacts of the current US administration, the affected countries and Brexit. The uncertainty that exists in the market is what is most disconcerting and driving this high level of focus. In North America, changing duties and quotas are driving companies to develop new sourcing strategies, evaluate the impact of new duties on the bottom line and vet new suppliers. Brexit is even more problematic for Europe as companies try to understand the effects on their supply chains and logistics services if the seamless flow of goods stops between the UK and the rest of Europe. In 2019, companies will focus on global trade and customs solutions that can help them navigate the potential changes, glean clearer insight into alternative trade opportunities that exist and ensure compliance with much higher customs clearance requirements. 2018 was also a very active year in the area of sanctioned parties list expansions, stepped up enforcement actions especially on challenging rules like the OFAC 50%, and it is very likely the pace of sanctions and enforcement actions will ramp up in 2019.

Home Delivery Hangover

Again, another “no choice” for retailers as consumer expectations for home delivery continue to rise with, again, record online sales during the 2018 holidays. Retailers will be focused on getting costs in line and better understanding what customers want and are willing to accept for home delivery services. In 2018, companies started to get a better perspective on the different kinds of expectations customers had for delivery services, and that “as fast as possible” and “free” were more market hype than reality. In addition, leading retailers started to focus on understanding the balance between delivery service and the fees charged and—most importantly—understanding that allowing consumers to self-select their delivery options based upon speed and price could lower or recover delivery costs. In 2019, retailers will increasingly look for home delivery solutions that allow them to provide consumers with delivery choice, and even steer them to options that help the bottom line.

Parcel Power

As ecommerce grows, so does parcel shipping. In 2018, the rapid expansion of domestic and international parcel shipping continued. Carriers established more aggressive pricing and delivery strategies to keep pace with the increasing demand and improve profitability. Governments adopted more stringent tariff policies to make sure they were not missing an increasingly large revenue stream from ecommerce direct from Asia. As the cost and complexity of parcel shipping increases in 2019, companies will deploy solutions that can minimize their parcel shipping costs through more intelligent carrier and mode selection, and effectively address international requirements such as landed costs, restricted party checking and customs filings.

Technology – Some Hot & Some Not

There was not a day in 2018 when some organization or technology company was not announcing their AI, Machine Learning, Big Data or Blockchain solution or initiative. Even the business and trade press pointed to these technologies as ushering in a new era in logistics technology. As 2018 unfolded, however, there was a divergence in the value of some versus others that will carry into 2019. In 2019, there will be greater investment in—and results from—AI, Machine Learning and Big Data because of the ability of these technologies to significantly augment existing solutions and deliver business value in the near term. Unfortunately for Blockchain, it heads to the “trough of disillusionment” for the next year as pilots end and questions remain about the change and costs required to deploy it, its technological limitations and, most significantly, the lack of standards. For anyone who has been in the tech industry for 20 years, Blockchain should be a reminder of the hype that XML received in the late 90s. The question for the value of Blockchain isn’t if, just when.
The macro trends of ecommerce, global trade destabilization and the over-the-road transportation capacity shortage will continue to shape 2019 just as they have in 2018. Shippers and LSPs are realizing that they must act differently to survive or thrive and will more aggressively adopt new logistics and transportation technology solutions. It has been 20 years since the impact of technology was so prominent in the transformation of logistics and transportation. How will your company use logistics and transportation technology to impact performance in 2019? Let me know.
Chris Jones is the EVP of Marketing and Services for Descartes – The global leader in uniting logistics-intensive businesses in commerce.

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Tigers’ Global Presence Increased with New Sales Team

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International supply chain and logistics company, Tigers, continues furthering its global presence through the designation of four new sales representatives. The new sales team will cover the Asia-Pacific, South Africa, Europe, and North American regions while supporting the company’s efforts to keep up with the recent increase in customer demand.
“Following the successful global expansion of Tigers and the launch of SmartHub:Connect in 2018, the new global sales team will raise the profile of Tigers on the international market as we continue to grow,” said Andrew Jillings, Chief Executive Officer at Tigers. “It is an exciting time for Tigers as we embrace disruptive digital technology in order to provide our customers with end-to-end visibility through customizable solutions.”
Covering the Geneva region is Regional Director for Global Sales Christian Bonnet. He brings with him fashion and apparel and e-commerce specializations. APAC Regional Sales Director Paul Huang brings with him expertise in international freight management and e-commerce, as seen with his previous tenure over Tigers’ China organisation.
Chicago-based Vice President of Growth, Amber Braband, will focus primarily on the Americas region while Johannesburg-based General Manager of Sales, Sean Gothe, will invest his efforts towards growth in sub-Saharan Africa.
“The representatives are based in key locations across four continents, and as we continue to expand our e-commerce and digital technology platform, they will lead the strategic growth focus in this arena.” said Jillings.
Source: Tigers 

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Consumer Insights and Collaboration to Boost E-commerce Incentives

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China’s largest social commerce platform, Taobao Marketplace, and Bilibili, a leading online entertainment platform, confirmed a business collaboration to focus on, “content-driven e-commerce and commercialization of Bilibili’s intellectual property (“IP”) assets,” (EIN).  The company’s will do this by utilizing consumer insights while integrating the platforms and the visibility between content creators, merchandise, and users.

Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Bilibili, Rui Chen commented:

“This business collaboration with Taobao is a remarkable testament to Bilibili’s commercial potential and closely aligns us with China’s leading and most successful e-commerce platform,” said Mr. Rui Chen, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Bilibili. “We can now leverage Taobao’s gigantic platform and seasoned e-commerce operating capabilities to further help our content creators realize and improve their commercial values, thereby building a more-virtuous content community and commercialization-focused ecosystem.”

“Through this collaboration, we will better incentivize the creativity of our young people and will utilize each other’s strengths and resources to generate more premium content. We look forward to working with Taobao to fulfill the tremendous entertainment and consumption needs of the young generations in China, and importantly, in turn, we look forward to increasing the value we bring to all of our stakeholders,” he said.

With the resource sharing that automatically comes with the collaboration, both companies are enabled to better understand consumer needs as well as how to tap into potential markets.

“Early in 2015, Taobao rolled out a program to encourage bloggers, writers and online experts to post content on various channels on Taobao, to amplify the value of creative content. Over 1.6 million content creators, including anime, comic and games (ACG) experts, were actively supporting the Taobao App and helping brands on our platform engage with consumers,” said Fan Jiang, Vice President of Alibaba Group and President of Taobao. “Through deep cooperation with IP holders and content creators, Taobao has experienced the great potential of ACG. We greatly value Bilibili’s unique online hub themed around ACG, and appreciate “Gen Z” demographic expertise and believe there is a great, natural synergy between us. Together with Bilibili, we are devoted to tapping into the significant business value of this coveted demographic and bringing rich content and products to the young generations.”

Source: EIN Presswire

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E-commerce Strategies Improved for Iraq

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A formal eTrade Assessment Agreement has been signed between the UNCTAD and the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation, according to a release from both parties last week. The release specifies the agreement is a dual effort to prepare the Iraqi region for the utilization of e-commerce strategies for growth and digitization.

“I am very pleased to announce our formal partnership with the ITFC to carry out a Rapid eTrade Readiness Assessment for Iraq, under the Aid for Trade Initiative for the Arab States programme,” UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi said.

“Thanks to the generous financial support provided by the ITFC, we will be carrying out the first ‘enhanced’ eTrade Readiness Assessment,” he said. “It will follow the standard methodology used for the past ones but will include a deep-dive into one or two key sectors where digitalization is particularly relevant in the context of the Iraqi economy.”

Three primary goals were outlined, focusing on efforts to further increase e-commerce efforts by boosting Iraq’s understanding and preparedness through stocktaking and surveys, increasing national accounts, as well as enhancing technical advances and access to increase partner participation and investment prospects.

“Digitalization is now the future of trade and providing our member countries with the enablers to get the adequate environment for e-trade is now ITFC’s strategic focus,” ITFC chief executive officer Hani Salem Sonbol added. “With our partners, we will design integrated programmes that are tailored to meet the critical market needs of the member countries, as we are signing today for Iraq.”

Source: UNCTAD

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Europe Takes the Lead in 2019 E-commerce Index

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UNCTAD’s B2C E-commerce index for 2018 confirms The Netherlands as the most prepared country in the world for e-commerce with Singapore and Switzerland in second and third. The United Kingdom ranked fourth on the index, but placed as the highest B2C spending per shopper in Europe and the world’s highest proportion of B2C revenues to GDP.

This year, The Netherlands beat Luxembourg  – previously ranking among some of the highest but due to its poor postal reliability score dropped out of the top ten list. Postal reliability is one of the key factors taken into consideration for ranking and overall score.

“The Netherlands has high values for most indicators, particularly in secure servers – a proxy for e-commerce shops – where it is top-ranked among all 151 countries included in the index,” Shamika N. Sirimanne, director of UNCTAD’s division on technology and logistics, said. “The country also has the second highest proportion of online shoppers in the world – 76% of the population aged 15 and older.”

This year’s index provided information related to improving measurement efforts:

“The 2018 UNCTAD B2C E-commerce Index, which measures an economy’s preparedness to support online shopping, has expanded its coverage to include 151 economies, up seven from the 2017 edition. The index consists of four indicators that are highly related to online shopping and for which there is wide country coverage (box 1).

“The release of new account ownership data from the World Bank’s 2017 Global Findex survey has increased the number of countries included and allows for an estimation of account data for the intervening years since the last survey in 2014,” (UNCTAD).

 

Source: UNCTAD

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Global Trade and the Evolution of Digitization

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During this year’s eighth annual Asian Logistics and Maritime Conference in Hong Kong, one of the most common themes discussed was the impact, success to-date and history involved in the world of digitization for the supply chain sector.

Mr. Wilson Pang, Fintech Senior Manager, spoke on the topic during the second Supply-chain Management and Logistics Forum on day 2 of the conference, emphasizing the importance of improved research methods and application for the industry. Key highlights from his presentation included a thorough SWOT analysis of the Hong Kong trade sector and what possibilities can be utilized for maximized success and elimination of inefficiencies.

Strengths included the obvious leading role the Hong Kong market plays in the global trading arena and the fact that it accounts for 3 percent of the world’s total trade. Weaknesses were identified as lack of financing for less than 50 percent of total trade between 2006-2015. The Belt and Road initiative provided the strongest opportunity for the market, with an emphasis on expanding trade in an effort to support and promote economic cooperation and peace.

Here comes the game-changer: the threat. From all of the perspectives addressed thus far, threat prospects can range from a variety of factors. Nonetheless, Pang identified the high transaction cost spurred from documents and manual processes combined with very likely risk of data errors and duplication.

Digitization in the form of e-trade connect is a solution Pang presented. He also shared a very interesting illustration proving the evolution of digitization through the story of Russian world class chess champion Garry Kasparov and his defeat by an IBM supercomputer. Factoring in the elimination of human error and outsmarting the human mind through digital solutions, the risk of duplication and errors are resolved.

Pang took it one step further and broke down the process into three priority functions: agreement creation, financing and reconciliation.  Through this process, trade and trade finance is simplified while benefiting all players in the trade sector. This is how industry leaders can unleash the full potential of business.

 

Source: Presentation, “eTrade Connect: Welcome to the Future of Trade” by Mr. Wilson Peng, Senior Manager, Fintech Facilitation Office