ness. From the moment the online order is placed to when
it is picked, packed, and shipped, every step in the process
must be handled efficiently, consistently, and cost-effectively. In e-commerce, it is the fulfillment center that provides
the most pivotal customer experience. Simply delivering
the goods on time is no longer an adequate mission for the
fulfillment center. Today, consumers demand more. They
want flexibility, and they want options. They are expecting
different levels of service. And increasingly, consumers are
gravitating to e-commerce suppliers that can deliver a more
customized, even individualized, fulfillment experience.
A COOL CHALLENGE
Nowhere is meeting this high level of consumer expectation more challenging than
in temperature-controlled e-commerce
fulfillment operations. This sector of the
food industry has seen consistent growth
in both chilled and frozen products, necessitating commensurate expansion and
improvement of fulfillment and distribution operations. A study published by the
International Association of Refrigerated
Warehouses (IARW), “The IARW Global
Cold Storage Capacity Report,” shows that
10 million cubic feet of refrigerated space
were added to North American warehouses from 2014 to
2016, representing a 2.3% annualized growth rate, approximating the annual growth rate in purchased chilled and
frozen food products.
Every aspect of refrigerated and deep-freeze warehousing
is moving faster. The consumption of temperature-controlled products, primarily frozen, has increased dramatically, with faster turnover compared with their ambi-ent-temperature counterparts, with an increasing number
of products in the - 10 degrees Fahrenheit to 38 degrees
Fahrenheit range. Maintaining a high throughput rate in
controlled environments, along with inventory and fulfillment accuracy, is a much more difficult task than in ambi-ent-temperature warehouses.
Many e-commerce companies providing chilled and frozen food products, particularly mid-sized and smaller e-retailers, do not have the in-house expertise or resources to
implement adequate fulfillment models at the speed that the
market is demanding. E-retailers must accommodate specific shipment-compliance labeling requirements, order-ship-ment documentation requirements, manifesting rules, and
where applicable, government-mandated track-and-trace
regulations. This is in addition to the need for real-time
cloud-based visibility of inventory and order movement,
as well as overnight- and two-day guaranteed delivery.
Further, food e-retailing is a sector where clients are particularly likely to request customized fulfillment services.
To meet these heightened requirements for tempera-
ture-controlled goods distribution, e-retailers are increas-
ingly turning to third-party logistics service providers
(3PLs) that are equipped to handle the fluctuating and
demanding requirements of online chilled and frozen food
fulfillment.
RAISING THE BAR
As e-commerce expands and these e-fulfillment demands
escalate, the bar is continually being raised for e-retail logistics executives, who lean on 3PLs to provide solutions. In
fact, the use of 3PLs is growing rapidly, expanding at a rate
of 12% to 15% annually corresponding to the growth in
e-commerce. And to no small degree, this
growth includes e-retailers that provide
chilled and frozen food products requiring
temperature-controlled fulfillment.
Not all 3PLs have the facilities, experience, or operational agility to deliver
highly specialized and customized temperature-controlled e-commerce fulfillment services. However, there is a new
breed of agile 3PLs that do. One of these
is Burris Logistics, a Milford, Delaware-based contract logistics company with a
strong presence in the temperature-controlled e-fulfillment market.
“A successful temperature-controlled fulfillment implementation for food e-retailers of any size requires carefully
planned processes, scalable operations, and highly efficient
systems to address its inherent challenges,” said John
Teixeira, senior vice president, custom retail distribution,
for Burris Logistics.
Burris, a fifth-generation family-owned enterprise, operates an expanding network of temperature-controlled
warehouses and distribution centers from Florida to
Oklahoma to Massachusetts. The company provides logistics, transportation, and supply chain solutions coast to
coast, encompassing custom retail distribution, public
refrigerated warehousing, freight management, and food-service redistribution.
“Both food e-retailers and traditional brick-and-mortar
retailers are looking for e-fulfillment solutions,” added
Teixeira. “But they may not have the systems in place to
provide the data, the analytics, and the visibility they need
to have a more efficient and profitable e-fulfillment operation. We can provide those services with whatever level of
customization they need.
“Smaller and mid-sized e-retailers, particularly, are adept
with their product manufacturing and marketing, but don’t
necessarily have the supply chain understanding to get their
