When Stores Call An Audible: Modern DCs And Growing Demand For Order Fulfillment Flexibility

To say that DC operations aren’t what they used to be is a gross understatement. Twenty years ago, our biggest challenge was bringing a new store online, or perhaps the occasional integration of a new 3PL. Today, many of our DCs are accommodating tens of dozens of shipping partners (or more) and fulfilling not to hundreds or thousands of stores, but to hundreds of thousands or even millions of endpoints (i.e. consumers).  What a transformation. We’ve never before seen so much technology driving DC operations, and still we clamor for more of it. But the biggest need today isn’t more horsepower or square footage. It’s more flexibility.

At issue is the fact that order fulfillment systems haven’t evolved as quickly as consumer shopping demand has. In many cases, they haven’t evolved as quickly as merchants’ willingness to meet those demands, either. That leaves merchants in a bit of a pickle. DCs are playing catch up to facilitate the order profile variance, fluctuating volume, and unpredictable workflows that come with omni-channel retailing. What’s more, disparate DC technology footprints from one facility to the next have hamstrung many merchants. Whether the result of poor planning or acquisition, non-uniform DC protocols don’t just impede the repeatability and coordination of best practices, they hamper a merchant’s flexibility to deal with order anomalies. Merchants understand consumer demand and they want to meet it, but their DC infrastructures often hold them up.