With consumers slowly migrating to online marketing, the world is becoming more available at the click of a button, more precisely, within seconds. E-commerce websites are struggling to keep up with the demand, and the recent pandemic has only helped increase it further.
Keeping a customer interested in your offer is getting challenging. What adds to this equation is that most warehouses are situated outside cities, making it difficult to keep up with the accelerated demand.
Thus, there is a need emerging for businesses to change the way they run their stores and fulfill orders, and thanks to perks like same-day delivery services with the help of micro fulfillment services, it’s achievable.
This article discusses the concept of micro fulfillment centers, including their work and the top three trends that are increasing the demand for these centers.
What Is A Micro Fulfillment Center?
An MFC or a Micro Fulfillment Center is a highly automated mini distribution center. It can be set up in an area as small as 2,000 sq. ft. and can go up to a large area like 50,000 sq. ft. An MFC can deliver about 5,000 orders a day, and that’s just where it starts. QuickShift is ahead of the curve and has one of the first micro fulfillment centers in India.
The MFCs are located closer to the customer inside the city. If managed properly, they can enable deliveries in under three hours and are a fraction of the cost of full-sized warehouses. They are essentially dark stores and retail facilities that are not open to public customers for consumption.
The micro fulfillment centers focus on last-mile delivery, which is the last step in the order fulfillment process. It involves delivering the package from the nearest shipping hub to the customer using the fastest and the most cost-efficient method.
How Do MFCs Work?
Most micro fulfillment services use advanced goods-to-person automation technologies. This includes mobile robots and shuttles for extremely accurate and quick order picking. For example, QuickShift Rapid, one of the fastest same-day delivery services in India, can easily keep up with the demand because of highly automated and advanced MFCs.
Through the use of warehouse execution software, MFCs all over the city can communicate with each other and enable real-time order management. Thus, enabling all micro fulfillment centers in India to function efficiently and, most importantly, profitably.
3 Retail Trends Fueling The Need For Micro Fulfillment Centers
For businesses already running with the support of micro fulfillment centers, it’s impossible to imagine the fulfillment procedure without them. The purposes they serve are numerous and extremely beneficial to not rely on and leverage them to the fullest.
However, in the world of retail, there are three major trends that call for the adoption of these MFCs without giving a second thought. These are as follows:
1. Optimization Of The Last-Mile Deliveries
Last-mile delivery is the last step in the delivery chain, and it is normally the most expensive one. By getting MFCs in the city, you cut down on the last step in the delivery process by the amount the parcels have to travel and the time it takes to make that final delivery.
With warehouse execution software, MFCs can help direct online orders to the optimal fulfillment location with the best efficiency. Through the use of automation, not only will your daily overheads drop significantly, but so will the error margin, thus achieving same-day delivery effortlessly.
2. The Booming Culture Of Dark Stores
Dark stores are a major part of the QuickShift Fulfillment strategy. These tiny locations scattered throughout the city ensure increased accessibility to the products and their fulfillment.
The surging need for dark stores is also leading businesses and retailers to open MFCs within them. By installing urban logistics and retrieval machines, they can quickly turn a part of their dark stores into a micro fulfillment center. This helps save space and expenses that would otherwise be pretty high, given the rates for renting or buying warehouses.
3. Meeting The Uniqueness In Product Assortments
The changing or ever-expanding product assortments often pose a challenge- tackling the diversity of the product mix and getting order fulfillment right at all locations.
Through predictive analytics, the MFC technology understands what sort of goods are in high demand in certain areas, thus benefiting you with hyper-localism.In addition, they allow the retailers to store perishable items and track their shelf life to avoid losses.
Conclusion
QuickShift Rapid is the future of retail management. It is the best way to get products delivered to the doors within the same day of order placement. Cheap, efficient, and the future of warehouse management, QuickShift Fulfillment offers numerous micro fulfillment services in India to your brand to scale up and enrich customer experience.