It's no surprise there was an increase in online shopping during the pandemic and its many lockdown periods. According to the Inside Australian Online Shopping Report, 2022, more than four in five Australian households shopped online in 2021 and spent $62.3 billion on physical items. Furthermore, the number of households that shopped online each month in 2021 increased by 39% compared to 2019.
This fundamental shift in shopping behaviour was born of necessity during the pandemic and has continued as consumers experience newfound confidence with shopping online. The report also states that 75% of online consumers consider sustainability when deciding where to shop, which impacts their choices where they spend their money.
IFC Global Logistics and Warehousing understands how competitive the retail and FMCG industry is and how to support our customers to deliver goods to consumers in the shortest timeframes possible by providing efficient and tailored supply chain solutions. In particular, IFC has developed two award winning strategies to ensure our customers remain competitive with our ‘direct-to-store’ and ‘e-commerce’ models.
The direct-to-store model dramatically reduces production lead times while simplifying the stock ordering process, resulting in improved sales forecasting, and aids marketing promotion planning as a result of being guided by real-time stock availability. IFC achieves this by processing and consolidating stock at an off-shore location, allowing the dispatch of store-ready palleted orders to be shipped directly to each Australian state for transportation to store.
The e-commerce model sees IFC work closely with e-commerce retailers to provide customer-specific supply chain solutions. When consumers expect almost instantaneous delivery of goods, IFC can offer four-hour metropolitan delivery options for our customers, with a 99% success rate. The benefit of such efficient delivery is an improved customer experience, not only matching competitors’ delivery times but often exceeding expectations.
More Australians are also opting for online food purchases over trips to the supermarket, providing a different set of requirements to meet demand and adhere to strict food safety standards throughout the supply chain. IFC’s performance in this industry is driven by quality control services, warehousing, and distribution facilities that are HACCP accredited to safely handle food and beverage products.
As the demand for online shopping isn’t predicted to recede any time soon, IFC continues to deliver custom supply chain solutions while always looking at how to increase efficiencies. Our demonstrated experience provides innovative and efficient solutions to help our customers remain competitive in a fast-paced environment often driven by fluctuating factors such as seasonal variations, changing trends and evolving customer behaviour.
Contact the IFC team to discuss how to improve your supply chain logistics management.
