Streamlining direct store delivery
The COVID pandemic accelerated the growth of direct store delivery (DSD), and the global Direct Store Delivery market is expected to grow at a 6.5% CAGR through to 2027, driven by increasing demand for fresh and organic products which cannot risk extended time in warehouses or distribution centres.
Advantages of DSD
DSD can help improve inventory management, reduce costs, and increase sales. Manufacturers and distributors can manage their supply chains more effectively by reducing lead times and inventory levels. DSD can also reduce transportation costs and minimize waste.
By reducing the number of touchpoints in the supply chain and with greater visibility of touchpoints in real time, manufacturers can respond to changes and issues more quickly and frequently, and accurately answer retail customer status queries. Delivery frequency and reliability is increased while transport costs are decreased.
DSD enables manufacturers and distributors to offer a wider range of products and more convenient delivery options in a way that is hyper-targeted and taps into local demands for customized product ranges. Stronger customer relationships can be built through more personalized service.
The data generated by DSD can be analyzed to not only identify trends in retailer and customer preferences but also to iteratively improve and optimize supply chain efficiency and inventory levels.
From a retailer standpoint, DSD reduces inventory holding costs and the likelihood of out-of-stocks, thus improving customer experience. They can offer a wider range of products without large inventories. And in cases where the supplier and distributors are placing the merchandise on-shelf and ensuring correct pricing, DSD saves retailers on payroll. For smaller retailers it saves them on space they don’t have to carry large inventories. So ideally a supplier’s DSD platform is combined with a Retail Execution program at the store.
Challenges, perils, and pitfalls
DSD challenges include:
High and increasing costs: rising labour costs, shipping costs, and distribution costs including purchase or lease of trucks and drivers
More responsibilities: ensuring timely deliveries and liability for damaged or defective goods
Increasing service requirements: growing assortments, shorter delivery times, more promotions, and demand volatility in some categories
Complexity: the need to monitor distribution assets such as trucks’ physical and mechanical condition and physical location throughout each day, monitoring the status of every delivery at each checkpoint
Inadequate customer service: dealing with customer enquiries and disputes about order and delivery status, invoices, delivery delays, and product information requests
Poor decisions and inability to act quickly: If using old or manual DSD solutions, a supplier may have limited visibility of what is happening in the field (such as delays, damaged products, poor marketing/non-competitive products, late orders), and lack the data to make informed business decisions.
Mitigating the risks and streamlining operations
Employing a technology platform that minimizes the challenges and exploits the advantages listed above is the name of the game.
A quality DSD solution, which may be a combined solution across Order Management, Warehouse Management, and Retail Execution solutions, should be able to:
Integrate and automate route and customer orders
Enable real-time visibility across the supply chain by providing operation workflow and delivery visibility
Monitor all delivery and sales activities to increase safety, security, and traceability. Track delivery from warehouse to recipient
Provide intra-day intelligence on order adjustments, returns, credits, cash and driver performance
Provide visibility of field activity such as delays, damaged products
Eliminate reconciliation paperwork
Manage mileage, fuel expenses, and bank deposits
Control inventory and cash transactions
Monitor and maximize portfolio distribution at the point of sale
Provide customer servicing and route reconciliation data
Provide proof of delivery (POD) to reduce queries and disputes
Monitor and track sales opportunities including identifying and tracking operator and distributor sales targets
Be easily integrated with any ERP system
The right solution, or combination of solutions, can help improve execution, productivity, and efficiency at the point of sale while reducing errors. It can take the pain out of customer service and route reconciliation while streamlining and improving sales, deliveries, merchandising, productivity, and analytics. It can boost operational efficiency and maximize revenue by improving sales and order-to-cash cycle times and growing portfolio distribution at the point of sale. It can reduce inventory shrink, prevent shelf out-of-stocks, and decrease customer disputes, chargebacks and collection issues.
Ultimately a good DSD solution will help boost your operational efficiencies and maximize customer service whilst reducing costs and increasing revenue. TELUS Consumer Goods has a number of solutions to help streamline your DSD operations.
Reach out to a TELUS Consumer Goods representative to learn more.