Logistics And Supply Chain Providers Need To Rethink Their Homework As Back-to-School Season Makes Its Way Again

The schools this year do not remain the same, hence naturally the Back-to- School shopping this year has witnessed a changed face too. With the lockdown being lifted in phases, the amount of students attending schools remains staggered into various groups. The ebb and flow of the crowd poses a difficult task for the supply chain to cope with. To ensure the kids are all set for the Back-to-School season, the supply chains are required to cope with this unforeseen product demand at such erratic intervals.

Since the school inventory has been sitting still in the shops for a long two years, replenishing what is needed is in order. From pencils to books, and now the necessity covid kits need to be provided in child size colourful options to encourage the young ones to start new amidst these testing times. Cargo circulation and an adequate supply of shipping containers remain an essentiality for this. To cope with the two hands of the market, a complete visibility with regard to the demand and the supply of Back-to-School products ease out the mechanisms. Shutting down of factories and plants have led to inventory shortages and hence the supply chain needs to be smoother thanever. Collaboration, storage and travel in such times becomes all the more complicated than it already was, leading to a need of an end-to-end smooth user friendly system. All the stakeholders of the process, when integrated onto a single platform, are easy to synchronise the processes with.

The Back-to-School shopping remains a time bound affair, hence delayed shipments and hindrances on the road affect the consumers and their activities very directly. The commonality and abundance of competition of such supplies makes it very important for your business to provide what the customer needs, where they need it and on time.

Bimal Subhakumar, the Senior Consulting Manager at Novigo, recently said, “This year’s Back-to-School season is expected to bring a massive boom in the sales of school supplies, apparel, and footwear. While this can be a time to ramp up inventory for retailers, we need to understand that shippers generally have dedicated freight contracts with specific carriers during this time”. He elaborated, “For example, at one of the world’s largest stationery & office products companies, we found that the Back-to-School (BTS) rates for some lanes were costlier than the normal rates of non-BTS carriers. Thisfinding helped them to renegotiate the rates for these lanes during the next bid process and save freight cost.”

The Back-to-School goods continue to remain in the fast moving consumer goods sector, hence the pricing of the products needs to be in accordance with the same. Furthermore, the additional costs required to fulfil the post pandemic production regulations can then be made up for by optimising one's supply chain without compromising on the price points or the quality of the supplied products. Digitisation of the supply chain with electronically generated receipts and bills, in addition to instant online invoices reduce the cost of administrative work as well as the raw resources that are being used for generating the same, for example, paper.

Lastly, the one thing the pandemic has demanded the most out of the supply chains is responsiveness. From the ever changing verdict of the schools, to the entry regulations created by shops that sell Back-to-School merchandise, all of it massively impacts the supply chain. The resilient supply chains can withstand any of these erratic predicaments and make themselves flexible to suit the need of the hour. Additionally, road blocks, traffic, vehicle conditions, driver reliability and border regulations, are the second limb of the factors that need to be considered while ensuring the supply chain runs smoothly

The most practical solution in the new normal is integrating your supply chain digitally. Software as a service provides umbrella solutions to all the possible problems your business can face whilst preparing itself for the Back-to-School season. From convenient communication to paperless and instant document generation, the inside works of your supply chain are geared up. The unforeseen circumstances are predicted and tailored into your processes ensuring that the students are equipped with enough ammunition to combattheir studies!

Such a technological marvel is deployed and fully functional at the multiple institutions, corporate companies and government transport bodies. The CargoFL Transport Management Software is the future of and the revolution that the logistics and supply chain industry needs. Along with tremendous other unbelievable features embedded in the CargoFL TMS, you can flawlessly shift your focus on expanding and enlarging your exponentially growing curve!

You can find detailed insights about the same on www.cargofl.com. You can also request for a complete explanatory demo through connect@cargofl.com. Better yet, give us a call on +91 83290 83054 and we could arrange a demo for you to take things ahead.