Inbound Logistics: 9 Innovative Ways to Manage and Meet Demand Surges, Featuring McMurray Stern

A version of this article was published on Inbound Logistics, featuring McMurray Stern.

“Whether you anticipate a retail demand surge or it happens unexpectedly, you need to be able to manage that sudden order spike in ways that don’t harm customer relationships or your bottom line.

Here are ways companies across the retail supply chain capture and fill orders when demand surges.

IMPROVE DELIVERY TIME BY FILLING ORDERS FROM THE BACK OF THE STORE.

Increasingly, retailers looking for ways to get high-demand orders to customers more quickly are using a micro-fulfillment model that involves filling orders from the back of brick-and-mortar stores.

That’s what one of Pat Fitzpatrick’s outdoor action sports clients does. “A small warehouse keeps enough inventory for three to four days, but pushes everything out to stores for fulfillment,” says Fitzpatrick, vice president of sales and marketing for commercial storage solutions company McMurray Stern.

Companies can use this approach strategically according to demand locations, he says, or to improve delivery times in areas farther from a fulfillment center but closer to a store.”