Welcome to the January issue of The Grocery Trader. Happy New Year, and welcome to 2015.
We brush out the Christmas cobwebs and get down to work with our features. ‘Baby & Kids’ looks at little people and the big opportunity they present. ‘Ethnic Food & Drink’ makes the best of food and drink from around the world. And in ‘Big Night In,’ January is a long month, straight after the festive season; make it a happier time for your shoppers by encouraging them to live a little with a Big Night In or two.
Business is fraught with uncertainty, but as our front cover story from Honeywell makes clear, one thing you can be sure will happen in 2015 is that online shopping and demand for ‘click-and-collect’ and other services will go on growing. And successful retailers and other warehousing and distribution businesses will adapt to the shifting landscape, supported by the right technology.
According to eMarketer, worldwide B2C e-commerce sales were expected to approach $1.5 trillion in 2014 – 20% up on 2013. To meet the surging demand supermarkets and other progressive retailers need to invest in light, agile and scalable technology. And they also need to invest in their workforce. Despite the trend to automation in much of industry, Honeywell report many businesses discovering people are still the strongest, and also the most adaptable resource ever, provided they have the right tools.
Technologies like Honeywell Vocollect Voice solutions can help ‘back room staff’ meet increasing pressures to execute faster and shorten fulfilment times. Voice-directed pickers wear headsets, leaving eyes and hands free, ensuring staff can be easily re-assigned to other tasks without intense training. This provides the flexibility and scalability needed by high-volume, multi-channel retailers faced with fluctuating demand and changing order profiles.
Also on our front cover is a story about the supply chain technology behind Krispy Kreme speciality donuts, a familiar sight in supermarkets nationwide. Zetes has been awarded a three-year contract to provide its ZetesAres ‘DSD’ Direct to Store Delivery solution to Krispy Kreme UK. Krispy Kreme has opted for a Saas solution powered by the MCL Mobility Platform, to ensure ease of deployment and management. Zetes will supply Krispy Kreme with a fully managed service, including hosted software, hardware devices with remote mobile device management and all support services, for a fixed monthly fee.
ZetesAres is an advanced, fully managed Direct Store Delivery (DSD) solution, designed specifically for managing a perishable consumer goods supply chain. It gives manufacturers a high level of control and visibility over delivery and sales processes using a single mobile device, increasing sales revenues and improving demand forecasting.
Have a good month.
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