Benefits From 3PL In Retail Omni Market

A third party logistics provider that supports the retail omni market can bring some valuable benefits to the table for many retailers to seriously consider. A 3PL provides experience and expertise gleaned from a broad spectrum of the retail market and both the driving factors of the market and the requirements and demands of their other partners, never discount this power in the retail supply chain.  Just as importantly though the 3PL also provides a network of locations across the country and in some cases globally, that provide an immediate opportunity for the retailer to improve their time to deliver to customers at a very competitive rate. Retailers must be focused on the customer experience and a partnership with the right 3PL can provide the support in the supply chain and last mile delivery to the customer that would allow the retailer to focus more on the overall customer experience.

There are many other benefits to be gained for the retailer from a partnership with a 3PL that would depend on the position and needs of the individual retailer, however the experience opportunity alone can provide a compelling reason for retailers to seriously consider this option.  While retailers were cutting costs during the recession, one of the greatest cost savings was provided in the supply chain through reductions in labor and consolidation of activities which caused a bit of pressure on the supply chain leadership remaining to maintain their place in supply chain development and improvements.  During this same time, the 3PL industry saw reductions in demand as well, however the 3PL industry maintained it’s focus on engineered solutions and industry changes and improvements, in addition to 3PL market consolidation, to help their partners meet demands of both features and functionality and cost improvements. The result of these changes in focus was a reduction in retailer supply chain capabilities and an improvement in 3PL capabilities and, most importantly, maintenance of the industry expertise and ‘brain power’ of the 3PL.

Recently 3PL’s focused on the retail marketplace have begun to take advantage of their distribution center network to provide their retail partners with the ability to utilize this network to improve efficiencies in customer last mile delivery.  Third party logistics providers have also combined their network of distributions centers with big data analytics to help retailers distribute the inventory to regional locations to support two day shipping to most of the country without increasing the transportation charges.

Third party logistic providers have maintained their focus on supply chain and logistics to maintain their place in the market and support their customers needs.  This focus has allowed the 3PL to develop a knowledge and expertise base that when added to the network of distribution centers allows them to bring value to their customers and, in turn, allows their customers to focus on consumer demands and product development.  This may not be a good fit for all retailers but retailer should explore the opportunities to determine if they can achieve benefits in both cost and features.