Group O Blog

In the age of next-day delivery, retailers are under a lot of pressure to fulfill orders quickly and accurately. With customers beginning to expect faster shipping times, retailers need to ensure their products are being picked, packaged, and shipped as efficiently as possible and at a low cost. 

It is fair to say that customer expectations are higher than ever, with many customers unwilling to purchase from a company if their shipping expectations are not met. On top of that, more consumers are looking for free shipping or faster shipping at a lower cost. It is clear that brands need to meet the changing demands of today’s consumers in order to stay competitive. That means retailers need to take a hard look at their shipping practices and supply chain logistics. 

The key to customer satisfaction and order fulfillment accuracy is an efficient supply chain. If you are struggling with delayed fulfillment times, high fulfillment costs, or are unable to provide competitive shipping options and prices to your customers, it may be time to review your supply chain management options. 

Using state-of-the-art systems, Group O fulfills orders, consolidates suppliers, and manages inventory for hundreds of retailers across a variety of different industries. Our customized and scalable process ensures that your business needs and requirements are met. Group O’s retail fulfillment and logistics services help ensure a smooth operation, allowing you to focus on your product and customers, while Group O handles the rest.

Supplier Consolidation and Management

Managing hundreds of different suppliers takes time and money, and, with a larger margin of error, there is no guarantee that your efforts will pay off. When partnering with Group O, we become the only supplier you need by providing vendor management and consolidation services. 

At Group O, our supplier management team identifies cost saving opportunities and increases efficiency by consolidating your suppliers, so you do not have to juggle multiple suppliers.

Supplier Consolidation

If you are purchasing from too many different suppliers, there may be an opportunity to consolidate, saving you time and money. Our experts perform a thorough supplier analysis to identify and categorize different suppliers. Each supplier is evaluated on a variety of key performance indicators to determine the appropriate combination of suppliers that are needed for your business. 

When all is said and done, supplier consolidation leads to a reduced process cost, increased quality of work, reduced risk of error, easier supplier management, and better relationships with suppliers overall. All of this also lowers administrative costs and increases supplier visibility. This ensures that your supply chain is constantly being optimized and working at maximum efficiency. 

Supplier Performance Management

Group O also provides on-going supplier performance management services to ensure your suppliers are compliant, efficient, and meeting or exceeding your expectations. 

Performance evaluations look at:

Delivery performance
Product quality
Transaction cost
Communication
Cost of quality
Reliability 
Administrative oversight

By evaluating your supplier’s performance, Group O’s experts are able to identify opportunities for improvement or weed out inefficiencies. All of this contributes to your ability to deliver quickly without paying an excessive amount. And when Group O helps you save money, you can pass those savings on to your customers.

Inventory Management, Order Fulfillment, and Distribution Services

When an order is placed online by a customer, a series of events are set in motion to ensure the order is accurately fulfilled on time. The process begins after a customer places their order and their order information is sent to an order management system. The order is then sent to the proper warehouse based on inventory levels and the shipping location. Next, the order is picked and assembled by warehouse staff. Once the order has been packed, the order is shipped to the customer. 

For all of that to be accomplished in a timely manner, retailers need to have the right inventory in stock, the proper management technology, and the right staff to get it all done on time. If orders arrive late or are incorrect, companies are at a higher risk of losing that customer. Maintaining accurate shipping times is essential to customer satisfaction. 

Managing a vast inventory and staff can be a challenging task, especially without the correct tools at your disposal. At Group O we work with you to design a customized Warehouse Management System (WMS) that is specific to your business objectives. Your customized Warehouse Management System provides visibility into your supply chain and enables our warehouse staff to confirm inventory availability in a cost-effective manner. 

Alongside warehousing management, our team identifies efficiencies during the picking, packaging, and shipping process. If an area of the process is lacking, staff takes note and works to improve the efficiency of that part of the process. To ensure that the right shipments make it to the right store at the right time, our team also manages the shipping schedule. 

Managing the retail supply chain under one roof reduces the risk for error and streamlines the entire process. And with over 750,000 square feet of secure warehousing space across the nation, Group O is equipped to handle projects of any size.

Kitting and Assembly Management 

Group O offers kitting and assembly management solutions as part of our retail supply chain logistics. To streamline this process, our inventory management systems can be seamlessly integrated into our kitting and assembly management services. Kitting and assembly is done in-house to increase flexibility when it comes to order fulfillment, ultimately leading to cost savings for your business. With both inventory management and kitting and assembly managed by Group O, we are able to optimize handling time and handling costs, ultimately creating a more efficient workspace.  

Kitting

Group O’s kitting and assembly management services are designed to increase efficiency and drive costs down. Our experts collect and assemble kits according to your specifications and organizational needs. 

Our kitting and assembly offerings include:

Built to order kits
Packaging: shrink wrapping, banding, and custom protective packaging
Labeling
Barcoding and serialization
Rework or refurbishing

Our kits also range from mass-produced service kits to individual point-of-sale kits, depending on your specifications. 

To maximize the productivity of our kitting and assembly mechanics, our workspaces are set up to reduce the distance and time materials travel. This also decreases the number of times an employee touches the material during this process. Group O continually monitors and adjusts these processes for efficiency and cost-savings. Our kitting and assembly mechanics manage kits both large and small. 

Warehouse Optimization 

To ensure optimal production times, Group O’s warehouse staff utilizes technology to verify inventory availability, generate pick tickets, and ship orders in a timely manner. Accurate records are also diligently maintained to ensure the correct materials and components are available in the correct quantities, preventing out of stock or excess inventory. This is done using SKU management to identify, track, and categorize inventory using a unique serialization or code. SKU management increases the control of your inventory, reduces the amount of stock numbers to manage, and is easier to organize various components. 

In order to reduce handling costs, our warehouses are designed to maximize efficiency by optimizing the workspace. The distance and time it takes for materials to travel throughout the warehouse are decreased, reducing the amount of times our warehouse staff needs to touch the materials. By optimizing the workflow in our warehouses, staff are able to process orders more efficiently with less room for error.

Print Management

In addition to efficient warehouse management and shipping, Group O also provides print management services. Retail giants with hundreds of brick and mortar stores across the country can rely on Group O’s print management services to obtain marketing materials. Our print management solutions are fully customizable so that your retail displays, custom display artwork, or stand-alone displays, are delivered to the right place at the right time at the right cost.

By providing print management alongside inventory management, kitting, and assembly, we are able to monitor and organize the overall supply chain process. Delays and errors can occur when printing is done by a separate party. Including this service within the supply chain reduces delays so that retailers receive their printed materials on time. 

Timeliness is especially important because of the fast-paced nature of the retail industry. With different campaigns and new product lines coming out regularly, it is important for retailers to receive the proper printed material on time for promotional purposes. Plus, Group O makes it easy for retailers to reorder printed materials as needed. No request is too big or too small for our team. 

Online Portals

Ordering materials online is easier than ever with Group O’s customized online portals. We offer our clients ordering portals as well as Goods Not For Resale portals to help streamline the overall ordering process for any goods they may need. Our online portals make it easy to manage the movement of materials and goods as they travel from suppliers to warehouses, to retail spaces. All of which are designed to increase efficiency, ensure shipping accuracy and customer satisfaction.

Ordering Portal

When you have a product that is ready to go to market it is important to make the ordering process for stores as easy as possible. Instead of dealing with designing your own ordering portal – which can be a complicated and time-consuming process – Group O has the experience and know-how to design a customized ordering portal to meet your business requirements. Your fully customized ordering portal is also monitored and updated as needed, ensuring a fully optimized experience. 

Goods Not For Resale Portal

Goods Not For Resale (GNFR) can include in-store displays, wall art, display devices, security devices, and anything else a retailer may need to promote products in their store. Our Goods Not For Resale portal allows retailers to order online or from their mobile devices, ensuring the GNFR that they need is delivered in a timely manner, within budget.  

For a major phone manufacturer, Group O designed a customized GNFR portal for stores selling its products. These stores can order display phones, security devices, and any other GNFR online or through their mobile device. Group O keeps our client’s inventory in stock so they are ready for their next product launch.  Our portals also manage returns and reverse logistics when damaged devices need to be replaced as well as when merchandise needs to be returned at the end of its lifecycle. Read more about Group O’s eCommerce solutions (including an event management system and new device depot tracking) here. 

The Goods Not For Resale portal is also available for new construction, allowing crews to order items quickly and efficiently, when and where they need them. Our easy to use portal ensures retailers can focus on their customers, removing the, often time-consuming, process of placing orders. 

Retail supply chain management does not have to be a challenging process

With Group O’s end-to-end retail supply chain logistics services, you can be confident that the management of your suppliers, inventory, kitting and assembly, print management, and online portals are taken care of efficiently, accurately, and within budget. 

Group O’s unique process is designed so that businesses can focus on their customers and their products, while our experts take care of the rest. If your supply chain is not running as efficiently as it should or you are experiencing lower levels of customer satisfaction, it may be time to rethink your supply chain management. 

To learn more about Group O’s supply chain logistic services give us a call at 866-476-8761.