BEUMER Group: Pouch System:
With the rapid growth of e-commerce, fulfillment centres in the fashion industry increasingly need to handle B2C orders in addition to their B2B business. BEUMER Group’s BG Pouch system offers our / customers high efficiency in order processing, as it enables throughput regardless of the order structure. The Italian Calzedonia Group also relies on it. The company has converted its warehouse and optimized omnichannel operations with the BEUMER pocket sorter. In doing so, it continues to achieve high efficiency in processing and fulfillment.
BEUMER Group, a leading global supplier of automated material handling systems, is helping fashion fulfilment centres meet the growing demand for B2C orders, using its BG Pouch System™ technology.
Fashion fulfilment centres are accustomed to meeting orders from retailers, but as e-commerce grows rapidly they also need to integrate B2C order fulfilment alongside their B2B business. This involves an entirely new way of working, with large numbers of customers ordering small numbers of items.
Space is under pressure as retailers offer wider varieties of items in online stores than in their physical stores, while seasonal changes and fast fashion also lead to more stock being carried. The complexity of this situation is exacerbated by the need to manage returned stock.
Fashion fulfilment centres need to find the best way to handle these challenges – either by investing in separate processes or by running an omnichannel B2B/B2C operation. Available space, budget, ROI and available human resources all affect the decision.
Any solution will need to offer flexibility, low-cost operation, high availability and low maintenance. These criteria are all met by BEUMER Group’s BG Pouch System technology.
Pouch sorters can transport, sort, sequence and store both outbound and returned items, making them ideal for integrating B2B and B2C dispatching. The technology offers high efficiency for B2C orders as it can handle throughput independently of the order structure – an order of two pieces or 10 will be dealt with in the same way.
In BEUMER Group’s BG Pouch System, magnetic drives give a friction-free accumulation flow, which counts for almost 80% of an average pouch system. The solution’s 80° inclines and declines help free up floor space, while avoiding pneumatics, and using off-the-shelf components reduces the need for maintenance. The lower number of drives delivers high energy efficiency.
One company that is benefiting from the solution is the Italian Calzedonia Group, a major player in international fashion retail markets. With the increase in e-commerce, Calzedonia Group has seen a steady rise in its direct-to-consumer (DTC) business and needed to optimise its despatch operations for its Tezenis brand to account for this growth while increasing the level of efficiency and customer service. Using the pouch technology, Calzedonia Group has transformed its warehouse, optimising it for omnichannel operations while continuing to achieve high efficiency in handling and fulfilment.
Using BEUMER Group’s BG Pouch System technology, a solution was designed to fit into the current premises, expanding the existing warehouse’s fulfilment capacity and returns handling. As it can be ceiling mounted, the BG Pouch System design gives a 30% smaller footprint than conventional pouch technology systems, thereby saving valuable floor space.
Consumer behaviour also varies between countries, placing huge pressure on an e-commerce or omnichannel organisation. The pouch system’s features are designed to remove most of this pressure, while the modular design allows capacity to be increased to match rising sales. This is one of the many future-proof features of the system.
“Return rates vary across Europe. Italian levels are generally 10-15% but with customers in other countries it can be as high as 50%. Such return rates can really put a strain on an otherwise efficient organisation,” says Salvador Oltra Gonzalez, general manager, BEUMER Group Italy.
