Improving Logistical Packaging for Retail Business

Physical product distribution and materials management are an important part of supply chain process. It can be more organized and effective if all activities from manufacturing, inventory, packaging to recycling are maintained. Sometimes at the warehouses, employees find the process of packaging and distribution tedious, which affects performance. Therefore, automating their work with more rigid system for searching, organizing, and sending goods can significantly optimize the workflow. For vendors, improving their management system, tracking stock, monitoring purchases, and customizing delivery can fuel working processes and raise profits.

BACKGROUND

One of the American clients contacted Agiliway in a need to optimize his e-commerce shop, namely a packaging and delivery system. The company is one of the biggest food retailers involving +20 e-commerce stores in different states. The high-quality foods at the affordable price has quickly attracted target groups, which opt for healthier lifestyle and better well-being. Now the client wants to expand a network of both web and physical shops focusing on more consistent supply, packaging, and delivery approach. Thus, Agiliway team has faced the challenge to extend the functionality of the existing e-shop and integrate more modules to improve the logistical packaging including storage, distribution, sale and end use.

Challenges

Our team accomplished an on-site visit to the client to discuss all business requirements. To the project completion, we faced with such challenges: 

• Transfer of knowledge. The system was old-fashioned and developed for long time. Thus, there was a need to share knowledge about the product to our team and do brainstorming to generate new ideas.   
• A need to integrate POS-terminals to all physical stores regionally  
• Optimize all product parameters at the app, namely integrating a box weight at the mobile application 
• Enhance the delivery and packaging modules  

Solutions

Using PHP technology, our team has expanded the network of web-stores and its synchronization of any changes at all websites. We paid special attention to the packaging logistics to optimize all working processes from distribution to end-use. Our engineers have managed to accomplish such solutions:  

• Increase a number of web stores and optimize admin management system so that any stock changes are updated at all websites 
• Optimize a route between a specific purchase at local shop and payment terminal through API callbacks so that any product would be deducted from the general stock 
• Implement a sniffer module to protect the data from unauthorized use  
• Extend delivery modules so that the employees might quickly check all product parameters during packaging and distribution including address of a recipient, product weight, volume, material and price 

• Add more delivery options including fast or extended delivery based on customer’s needs  
• Allow employees to define products based on their bar-codes and its unique information, which is kept at the web app 
• Improve the packaging process by giving employees an opportunity to identify, track, sort out, pack, and send products to its final destination by means of the web app containing all product measurements and location 

Value

The client received more opportunities to control and manage the supply system by assessing competitor’s market and defining own competitive price. The given e-commerce solution allowed merchants to optimize their working processes, improve end-user experience, and thus, increase profit. From now, employees can use the benefits of more automated packaging and delivery network system by managing all products from the web app. As a result, the client can reduce the unnecessary labor time and minimize time on delivery by optimizing the distribution process.  

Feel free to contact us if you are interested in any business recommendation and need a further e-commerce solution. We possess experience at building e-commerce projects at retail and automotive, eager to create an e-platform from scratch or extend its functionality.