08 May Wine logistics
Wine logistics for an e-commerce company: Dap Sides solutions for logistics and distribution
In 2013, we were able to obtain the contract to manage the wine logistics for a (now known) online trader in the world of wines, spirits and beers, as well as products for the home (furnishing accessories).
Initially, they entrusted us to manage the warehouse: the first order was for 6 pallets. The customer started with about 10 pallets worth of stock and no more than 10 B2C orders per day: the activity involved sending hundreds of different bottles to the homes of the final consumers.
The main problem we identified at the beginning was related to defective packaging: delicate items, such as bottles, plates and crockery in general, were often subject to breaking during transport.
A second problem we reveal in the shipping and transport of wine was the different bottle formats which did not allow for a standardised container. To further complicate matters was the fact, each individual package had a different code and the bottles had no barcode.
It was clear that these details negatively affected the inefficiency linked to the storage of the goods and preparation of the packages.
As a solution to overcome these difficulties, we proposed a different method of organising the activities of receiving and fulfilling orders to the customer, introducing the barcode to identify the references, in addition to IT, logistics and distribution support. Meanwhile, we concentrated our energies on improving the packages, adapting them according to the individual product and at the same time, ensuring total service flexibility.
With these operations, orders increased from 10/day to 500/day within 6 months, with peaks of over 1,000 during the “hot” months: the customer was able to devote themselves more to marketing operations and was soon able to fulfil an order the morning after receiving it the night before,, delivering it within 24/48 hours.
Thanks to the increasingly more integrated management of the activities, alongside the customer, and the sharing of information and performance indicators on deliveries, we soon realised that the packaging problem remained, as breakage rates were still quite high (double figures).
Our Team set to work to develop a more effective packaging solution: we redesigned different packaging formats (from 2/4/6 bottles) that kept the bottles suspended.
Result: the number of breakages reduced dramatically.
The customer’s needed a flexible partner, one who would follow them throughout their evolution: in 1 year, the orders increased from 6 to 600 and we managed to support the company even during peak periods (e.g.: Christmas) even managing 1,000 orders/day.
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