Supply Chain and the Consumer Experience With Matt Boland From Körber and Jill Barron From Summit Advisory Team

When your behind-the-scenes supply chain processes run smoothly, the front-end customer experience improves. In this episode of Unboxing Logistics, Matt Boland (senior director at Körber Supply Chain) and Jill Barron (practice lead at Summit Advisory team) explain how you can leverage the supply chain to give your customers a better buying journey.

Inventory management: a crucial piece of pre-purchase experience

What products are available, and where are they located in relation to customers? Inventory management is “probably one of the most important pre-purchase elements of a dynamic supply chain,” according to Matt.

When you don’t update inventory online, customer experience plummets. As Jill puts it, “there's no quicker way to lose loyalty and trust … than to not accurately communicate to your consumers that an item is back-ordered or out of stock.”

What customers want from the returns experience

Matt and Jill both agree: customers want a fast, frictionless return process. Jill suggests that most people prefer “either going quickly and dropping [a return] off at a local store or setting it out on [the] front porch for someone to come pick it up.”

Preventing returns is just as important as making them easy for consumers. Matt points out that “you greatly reduce your risk for returns if you dramatically increase your ability to deliver on time and in full.”

Moving away from free shipping

With the rise of Amazon, free shipping became a necessity for many consumers, and sellers offered it to stay competitive. But now, according to Jill, “There are retailers out there … putting thresholds on the purchase" so their customers have to spend a certain amount of money to get free shipping.

Links

• Visit Körber’s website: https://www.koerber.com/en/ 
• Connect with Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mtboland/ 
• Connect with Jill on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jill-barron/