Retail sales jumped 7.1 per cent in November after a 1.4 per cent rise in October, as Black Friday kicked off the much-anticipated 2020 holiday season.
According to the latest figures by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Aussies spent $31.6 billion during the month.
Aussies spent $31.6 billion on retail in November - Inside Retail
Over decades supply chains – the term for a system of organisations involved in producing and distributing products – have been refined to deliver goods just when they were needed, saving time, money and storage space. Now Covid-19 is breaking several links in that chain at once and our region has the potential to be badly affected by the chaos.
A perfect storm at the ports: inside our freight and port delays | Stuff.co.nz
FedEx Express has expanded its flight capacity across Asia Pacific to carry unprecedented package volumes during the holiday season.
In the past six months, the company has increased its weekly flights to meet the rapid demand for delivery and operated at peak level. FedEx plans to add 70,000 seasonal team members to its existing 500,000 members.
FedEx has “substantially increased” flights from Asia to Europe as well as flights into Australia from Asia.
FedEx boosts Apac capacity to service online boom - Inside Retail
"What's new in this inquiry is that we've been able to do some comparisons with other what we call the small advanced economies and the answer is that we appear to be a long way behind, maybe even half the levels of productivity in terms of labour productivity,"
That old chest nut. New Zealand firms for the last two decades have lagged behind those in similar economies when it comes to investing in productivity enhancing technology. Is the old number 8 wire thinking where you muddle through with less or with only what you know holding us back?
The irony is most firms are muddling through with more, more staff and more time at unnecessarily higher cost to cover systemic issues in operations that could be resolved with increased cost saving digitization of the workplace. This is certainly true of warehousing firms that experience tremendous growth but then realize the complexity of the warehouse can no longer be managed effectively by mere humans. Product goes into the warehouse but what happens in between receipting and shipping is a bit of a mystery. Lack of visibility results in rising inefficiency and creeping costs. Poor accuracy leads to expensive returns and customer dissatisfaction.
Though the quote above does not directly relate to supply chain, it is nevertheless relevant and applicable to all industries struggling with the transition from a manual labour intensive approach to one with a better mix of capital in the workplace. To reverse our sad productivity metric, perhaps the notion of ingenuity that kiwis are famous for needs to include greater openness to what’s new and not just what we can eek out from the old.
New Zealand's best firms a 'long way behind' in productivity (msn.com)
Supermarket giant Woolworths has opened a new online Customer Fulfilment Centre in Lidcombe, NSW.
At 15,000sqm the facility is now the grocery company’s largest online hub in the country and will create 900 jobs for personal shoppers in the area. Woolworths said in a statement that its online sales lifted by 100 per cent year on year from July to September and currently account for 8 per cent of its total sales.
“We’re seeing more and more of our customers turn to the ease and convenience of online grocery delivery in western Sydney,” said Woolworths director of e-commerce, Annette Karantoni.
https://insideretail.com.au/e-commerce/woolworths-opens-lidcombe-fulfilment-centre-202012
Independent online-only supermarket The Honest Grocer has launched in New Zealand, promising to “disrupt the duopoly” of New Zealand’s two big supermarket rivals.
The online supermarket offers a whole range of premium grocery products, which it claims have lower prices compared to major supermarkets.
Online-only grocer aims to disrupt New Zealand supermarket sector - Inside Retail
Nowadays with more retailers adopting omnichannel strategies, it’s important at any time of the year to be on top of your inventory, but it’s absolutely vital during the festive season. Conduct cycle counts so you know how much stock you’ve got and fill in any gaps in inventory before the Christmas rush. It also an opportunity to evaluate how quickly received inventory is added into the system and made accessible to pickers and make adjustments if necessary.
Six ways to boost your logistics during the festive season - Inside Retail
Lighting supplier Pure LED chief executive Daniel Deere said the company had used the four weeks during the alert level 4 lockdown to reassess the business. Changes that had benefited the business followed.
It was focused more on wholesale and the distribution of its lighting products throughout New Zealand and was widening its product range and customer base. The company was doing well, with sales in front of this time last year.
“We don’t know what it’s going to be like in six months or 12 months. These things that we are doing now should help pay off if something does turn not so good in the economy.”
The company was implementing a new business-wide software system to make its processes more efficient and reduce times it took to do certain tasks.
“Consumers and producers cannot count on getting what they want when they were used to having it. Not planning ahead will have consequences because the stock not ordered early will not be available on time.”
Shipping challenges and retail success loom large over Black Friday | Stuff.co.nz
Sporting goods retailer Decathlon has partnered with logistics business DHL Supply Chain to automate its Sydney warehouse, with the aim of effectively doubling productivity.
In the warehouse a number of Goods-to-Person robots will be deployed, which are capable of moving at speeds of close to one metre per second, and will enable human workers to dispatch up to 144 customer orders per hour.
Decathlon automating warehouse operations to "more than double" productivity - Inside Retail
eStar has commissioned a comprehensive whitepaper Retail for the New World exploring how COVID-19 has changed consumers and what this means for eCommerce now and into the future.
New Zealand was the seventh top selling nation to China during the festival, Alibaba said, with infant formula, honey products and luxury pet treats being the most popular Aotearoa products sold.
E-commerce is an increasingly significant component of China's economy, with around one third of all goods sales currently done online across a range of large and small platforms...cross border e-commerce is an increasingly important part of this expanding sector, valued at $26 billion.
Woolworths Group’s supply chain arm Primary Connect has opened the new Melbourne Fresh Distribution Centre (MFDC) at Truganina. The new facility will store fresh fruits, vegetables, meat and chilled products and serve more than 230 Victorian supermarkets.
https://insideretail.com.au/sectors/woolworths-opens-135m-melbourne-fresh-distribution-centre-202011
Alibaba Group beat third-quarter revenue estimates, driven by e-commerce growth after China emerged from coronavirus lockdowns, and said it was assessing the suspension of its affiliate Ant Group’s listing.
For consumers, Smart Lockers offers the holy grail of avoiding the risks of a physical store, without the long wait for home delivery. Not only do the lockers help to reduce delivery costs, they can be placed anywhere there is a power outlet, from a local gas station to a corner store for both indoor and outdoor. You don’t even need an e-commerce platform to use Panasonic’s Smart Lockers. All you need to do is to plug and play, and you can also seamlessly upgrade to Cloud version when needed!
https://insideretail.co.nz/2020/10/27/the-new-challenges-of-last-mile-in-the-time-of-covid/
The humble warehouse is humble no more. It is seeing cutting edge innovation take place in the form of increased digitization and automation.
At IWMS Australasia, we realise that many DC/warehousing environments see product enter and leave the building but what happens in between can be puzzling due to the sheer number of goods and general complexity of transactions and processes that need to take place in the modern day warehouse. Without accurate visibility of stock and processes, costly inefficiencies can creep in especially when a business grows. That’s why you need software and automation to relieve the overwhelming burden of today’s warehousing operations. Through engaging with IWMS Australasia and Korber supply chain software, what happens within the four walls of a warehouse need no longer be a profit draining enigma.
Kiwi e-commerce enabler Storbie has raised $1.4 million (NZ$1.5 million) in capital to help fast-track its expansion onto Australian soil.
The view of Shanghai CBD from the Bund
…this financial year, Comvita is narrowing its focus on mānuka and propolis products in the high-growth Chinese and North American markets where it is hoping to benefit from demand for foods claiming nutritional benefits.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/123159479/mnuka-honey-company-comvita-has-strong-start-to-new-year
I am often asked whether Artificial Intelligence can help to achieve better sales forecasts and procurement planning. My answer: Yes, it certainly can, and especially the improvements by using machine learning algorithms can be really impressive. To achieve this, two important things must be taken into account from the very beginning of a project:
