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~ Coffee Corner ~

offee or tea? When and how? holiday season peak will make or break you. This is especially
“Being British, if I had to choose, I would go for tea. If true of the spread of time between Black Friday, Cyber
Cyou are offering a coffee, it’s a Latte please…” Monday and Christmas. Each year, the industry gets better
at planning based on prior years’ lessons. But with the growth
The holiday season is approaching, what are your e- of e-commerce and rising consumer expectations of faster,
commerce expectations for this period of the year? pitch-perfect delivery, it’s how we use advanced data-driven
“E-commerce continues to be a powerhouse as consumer automation, analytics and optimisation tools that give us that
change continues. The overall economy may not be growing extra boost.”
as phenomenally well as we’d like, but consumer demand
continues strongly, especially online going into the holiday How is XPO Logistics dealing with these increasing
quarter. We can get everything online these days, all at a very holiday volumes?
high service level. That’s speeding along the channel shift that’s “In large part, it comes down to innovation. We invest
already well underway.” in extra warehouse capacity and technology annually, to
turn those sites into smart warehouses. Capacity planning,
Do consumers and sellers change their behaviour dur- working hand in hand with our customers to anticipate
ing the holiday peaks? volumes and aligning on capacity are also critical elements of
“It’s fascinating. We see really sophisticated behaviour from our preparations.
everyone. Consumers are savvy. They know which products they
can more easily buy online and have shipped to them at home, Linked to this, based on the capacity our customers will
and which products are best to shop for in stores because need, we strategically pre-bought the robots we’ll need for
they’re last-minute or cost more to ship. Or it is simply more customers coming on board in early 2020, so we can use
convenient to click and collect in-store. them to manage peak now. The lightweight robots are easy to
transport and install, giving us the flexibility to relocate them
Retailers, meanwhile, cater to digital shoppers no matter how they within the warehouse if needed.”
want to do the delivery, but many are also creating differentiating And, you cannot underestimate the return flow, right?
experiences in stores to make it worth the visit. All this switching
back and forth between channels means that retailers are “During holiday peaks, the return flow is even more sensitive.
integrating logistics operators like us tightly into their peak If a return is handled correctly, you can get it back quickly
planning so that they deliver a great experience to shoppers.” to a customer, which is a win in terms of managing both
your inventory and delivery costs, as well as your customers’
In the field of logistics, what is new compared to last expectations. Using the tech we have that tracks orders and
year’s holiday season? inventory throughout the supply chain, we know when a
“For us, it’s just the sheer amount of business we’re handling. product has been dropped back into the mail as a return and
In Europe, we have about 50% of our sites heavily impacted by when another customer has ordered that same item. Using
peaks, through consumer products, fashion, food and returns. that insight, we can route the product to the return centre
To help, we’re piloting XPO Smart, tools that improved closest to the customer who has just placed the order. That
workforce productivity in our US warehouses by 5% on allows us to prepare it for shipment quickly.”
average. Smart uses dynamic data science and machine learning
to predict volumes for the next day or week so that we can Any advice for (cross-border) online merchants for
tailor our staffing levels to the data. the coming period?
“The drumbeat is just going to keep building for companies to
During the past year, we also revved up our introduction of get products to customers hassle-free. One of the most efficient
collaborative robots to help workers better manage spikes in ways to do this is to strategically locate your stock in smaller
volume. storage locations as close to your customers as possible, based
on your understanding of your inventory and customers. For us,
In France, for example, we’re using autonomous robots that is our XPO Direct shared network service in the US, and
that move in three dimensions, moving inventory items more companies are adopting this model.
from shelves up to four times faster than humanly possible.
The robots bring the items to workers at order preparation I’d add one more point. The importance of a reliable partner
stations, helping speed up sorting, picking and packing while can’t be underestimated. This is the high-pressure season
supporting and protecting warehouse workers from repetitive, for us and our partners. We prepare all year for it, so we can
labour-intensive and time-consuming tasks.” provide our customers with the services they know they need,
and those they might not know they will need. Whether it’s
What is the biggest logistical challenge during the us or another company, you need to know you can turn to
holiday season? your partner when you’re in a jam.”
“Planning. Planning for the ebbs and flows during the

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