COVID-19 Response

Activate all of your potential inventory sources. We are seeing that many companies aren’t shipping from their stores, utilizing direct relationships with manufacturers for drop shipping or getting 3PLs set up to aid in their distribution efforts. Most of the requests we’re seeing from customers and OMS partners are regarding rapid deployment of ship-from-store so they can mobilize inventory and reduce the sitting cost of all those goods.

Note: Although stores are shutting down in terms of consumer foot-traffic for social distancing practices, it’s still possible to use those stores as mini fulfillment centers. Just recently, we helped one of our customers launch over 300 ship-from-store locations in less than a week to keep up with e-commerce orders.

Are your distribution centers being shut down in regions that are hard hit with the virus due to understaffing? We’re seeing customers doing line-hauls to help reach their customers. A line-haul is when you send your small parcel packages on an LTL truck or your own truck and drive the packages to a carrier hub. You can then create all, for instance, Purolator labels as if they looks like they are coming from the Purolator hub to the end user, that way when the LTL truck or your own truck drops off the packages at the hub, they are all properly labeled and ready to be distributed on Purolator trucks to the end-customer.

As an example, this was helpful to one of our customers because they could use inventory from their fully-staffed DCs in Texas and still get that product to the Canadian customers. It also can save money because you aren’t paying a small parcel carrier to do that full haul from TX to Canada. Instead, you are using their own trucks and just having to pay shipping from the Purolator hub to the end-customer.

Ask technical vendors for support and advice. The relationships you make with your technical vendors are there for a reason – they are the experts in their industry, hence why you invest in them. You rely on them to support you when something goes wrong, and you trust them to help guide you in making the right decisions for your business.

Your small parcel shipping vendor can help you put business rules into place as updates become available, help you navigate carrier changes and even help you implement omnichannel fulfillment strategies. Reach out and see what they have to say about the situation.