In Minneapolis — Hundreds of drivers park their personal cars at a delivery hub in Target’s hometown every day to deliver packages to customers.
There are three more locations where big-box retailers will be able to deliver online orders faster and at a lower cost, two of which are in Chicago and one in Denver. A growing number of retailers, including Walmart, are making an effort to increase the profitability of online sales as consumers increasingly make purchases and expect them to arrive at their doors within a day or hours.
As of late 2020, Target has added five more hubs where ready-to-go packages are sorted and grouped together to form dense delivery routes. At the latest, the final three are expected to open by the end of the month.
“Our goal is to meet the guest where they are, when they want, and how they want,” Chief Operating Officer John Mulligan said in an interview. That’s why we want to make the process as efficient as possible if they request that we ship a product to their home.
For Target, E-commerce now accounts for less than 20 percent of its sales; the majority of that comes from services like curbside pickup and the rest from shipping to customers’ homes. Even so, these sales are less profitable than if customers go to Target and pick up an item from a shelf and bring it home.
It’s no secret that rising fuel prices are pressuring retailers like Target to reduce the costs of fulfilling online orders.
Sortation centres, or delivery hubs, receive boxed-up online orders twice a day from stores. To expedite delivery, packages headed to the same town. Or nearby neighbourhoods are grouped together and sent out at the same time the next day. Since Target purchased Shipt, a delivery start-up in 2017. A growing number of packages are being delivered by contract workers who drive for the company. FedEx, UPS, and other national carriers are also used to sort. And deliver some packages to locations outside of the immediate area. Such as a different metro area or state.
Most orders are now picked and packed in backrooms of Target stores. Which have been converted to warehouses over the last five years. With the acquisition of two software companies that help determine which store fulfils. An online order and design dense delivery routes. It has become a major player in the online retail industry. There are devices that help some workers find the best routes to store shelves, as well.
As a result of the increased activity, new problems arose. Stacks of packages began piling up in backrooms, and workers had to wait for national carriers to collect them every day. Carriers were forced to make multiple pit stops throughout various regions. Before the sortation centre could open, trucks had to pick up packages from 43 different locations, including a fulfilment centre in Minneapolis, which added both time and labour costs.
Former Sears warehouse in Minneapolis now houses Target’s first sortation centre. More than 2,000 Shipt drivers or carrier partners deliver packages from the hub. There were initially 600 packages delivered each day, but now the facility can handle 50,000 each day.
As a result of the three new hubs, Target will now have nine sortation centres, Mulligan said, with additional centres expected in the future. Also in close proximity to Atlanta, Philadelphia, Dallas, Austin and Houston are its regional hubs. They processed 4.5 million packages in the first three months of the year.
According to Mulligan, Target is still attempting to determine the exact amount that sortation centres save on shipping. Over the past three years, he said, Target had reduced the average per-unit digital fulfilment cost by more than 50%.
The company’s ultimate goal is to reduce the distance that packages must travel. By placing desired items in stores closer to customers.
As part of its pilot programme in Minneapolis, Target is experimenting. With a new delivery vehicle that can hold up to eight times more packages per route than the standard vehicle.
Other retailers are also attempting to increase the profitability of their online operations. Additionally, Walmart is utilising its stores as warehouses. And contracting out the delivery of packages in order to build high-tech fulfilment centres. GoLocal is a new business that delivers online purchases for Home Depot, Chico’s, and other companies.
To cut delivery costs, Target has encouraged customers to use the Drive-Up service. Which allows them to pick up their purchases at the store’s parking lot. Rather than shipping packages from a warehouse to customers. Mark Schindele, chief stores officer, said that it would cost the company 90% less to do so.
The move to increase Target’s profitability comes at a critical time for the company. The retailer has cut its operating margin forecast twice in recent months. Warning that it will have to cancel orders and increase markdowns to get rid of unwanted merchandise. That it had stocked up on during the Covid pandemic, which ravaged the country.
For more information, please visit friday night funkin unblocked games 911.
