Retail supply chains can involve hundreds of products, suppliers and individual deliveries, creating a complex operation behind every store opening, refurbishment or rollout.
Effective retail logistics is about more than moving products between locations. How goods are stored, consolidated and delivered can influence everything from project efficiency and stock control to the number of vehicles travelling to individual stores.
For retailers looking to reduce the environmental impact of their operations, consolidation provides an opportunity to rethink the traditional supplier-to-store delivery model while maintaining the flexibility complex retail programmes require.
What Is Retail Logistics Consolidation?
Instead of individual suppliers making separate deliveries directly to stores, a consolidation model brings products and equipment together at a central location before onward delivery.
Goods can be received, checked, stored and grouped according to individual store or project requirements. Coordinated deliveries can then be scheduled to arrive at the right location and stage of a programme.
For multi-site retailers in particular, these retail logistics solutions can provide greater control over stock and delivery schedules while reducing the number of individual vehicle movements required.
Fewer Deliveries Can Mean Lower Carbon Emissions
Transport is one of the areas where consolidation can make a measurable difference.
Sigma’s consolidation model can deliver:
- Up to 70% reduction in deliveries to store
- Up to 60% reduction in transport emissions
- Up to 50% reduction in transport miles
Reducing the number of vehicles travelling independently to stores can help lower unnecessary mileage and associated emissions while creating a more coordinated delivery programme.
The benefits can be particularly relevant to projects involving multiple suppliers or locations, where individual deliveries can quickly increase the complexity of the programme.
The Benefits Go Beyond Transport
Good retail logistics starts long before a vehicle reaches the store.
Warehousing and consolidation provide an opportunity to coordinate products, equipment and suppliers before delivery, helping teams identify potential issues away from the live retail environment.
Sigma’s logistics capabilities include warehousing, consolidation, supplier collections, equipment storage, inventory control, delivery phasing and transport management.
Technology also supports this process. Sigma’s Equipment Management System (EMS) provides livestock visibility and a paperless approach to GNFR equipment management, helping retailers maintain greater oversight of equipment across their estate.
Supporting Complex Retail Programmes
Large-scale refurbishments, store openings and national rollouts require numerous elements to arrive in the right place at the right time.
Coordinated retail logistics solutions can support this by aligning warehousing, stock management, transport and final delivery around the requirements of the wider project.
This can be particularly valuable in live trading environments and locations with restricted access, where delivery windows and vehicle movements need to be carefully managed to minimise disruption.
Sigma Retail Logistics
At Sigma, our retail logistics capabilities bring together warehousing, consolidation, transport, equipment management and project support to provide greater control throughout the supply chain.
Working alongside our Project Solutions, Display, Building Services and Installation teams, Logistics also forms part of Sigma’s wider end-to-end approach, supporting complex retail programmes from initial planning through to final delivery.
Find out more about Sigma’s retail logistics solutions and how we can support your next project.