AI solutions — route planning — for e-commerce logistics
Pressure on “same-day delivery” logistics
Today “Black Friday”, “11.11” and “New Year’s sales” have become popular among buyers, because discounts and “tasty prices” attract customers.
The preparation, advertising, and marketing plans in advance heat the sales and interest of customers. As a result increase traffic of visitors.
Last year, stock during 11.11 showed more purchases than Christmas sales.
Due to the sudden increase in demand in one day, the logistics for e-commerce players are under pressure like never before.
Today, home delivery is almost mandatory, and buyers want to receive their purchase on the same day. Supply chain managers should make more efforts to adhere to level agreements and avoid erroneous routes for timely delivery to their customers.
Due to growing customer expectations, simple work efficiency no longer reduces bills for e-commerce players. Now companies need to provide customer service at their chosen time.
Shorter delivery time — more demand
Another pressure point to discuss during the hot season is the need for extra working hours.
To cope with the growth in demand, companies usually work in two directions: attracting additional staff for delivery and including additional working hours on the day of existing staff.
If the management companies decide to solve this problem on their own, then they may face big problems from an increase in the number of workers and additional payments to constant workers, an increase in vehicles.
WHY?
Because usually, during quick delivery, each messenger takes one order with one code address and delivers at the highest speed. But during the sale period, the delivery of one package by one carrier becomes unprofitable. Which leads to the fact that the working day is increasing, and delivery is not available on the same day, but it will take 3–4 days.
E-commerce has to play the new rules of the game and bear more pressure for shipping on the same day in high season.
Optimized Routes for “Same Day Delivery”
There is a solution to the logistic problem by using Artificial Intelligence (AI). Today on the market are route optimizers for a balanced download of instant messengers. So for a specific city created delivery zones using Big Data (DB) and AI. When working with tight delivery, this method ensures fairness and efficiency in last-mile delivery.
However, during the holiday season, uneven distribution or large volumes also throw away normal areas.
5 Ways to Transform Logistics in E-Commerce
AI and Automation.
Automation using Artificial Intelligence has already been successfully implemented in various models of logistics solutions, such as folding robots, computer-assisted barcode scanning, delivery of drones, and more.
Today, the key points when using AI include the possibility of rational supply chain planning, such as algorithms that can consider the most optimal route, thus replacing call centers and customer support departments for large businesses.
Internet of Things.
The term Internet of Things appeared in the late 90s, but the use of AI in logistics has become possible quite recently. For example, GPS-location for tracking the product, at what stage is processing, or delivery. Using such data as Big Data allows you to create routes and optimize logistics operations.
IoT finds many uses in logistics: active/passive electronic RFID tags; the use of global low-voltage networks instead of the traditional Internet; satellite trackers to help you track the location of products in real-time. All this makes it possible to analyze data in real-time, which is extremely important for every medium or large online store.
Real-time analytics using big data.
Working with large amounts of data is always a rather difficult task if it is performed manually. The slightest lack of attention gives rise to risks of provoking errors, which in the future will negatively affect your business processes. Moreover, as data volumes grow, their processing requires a more dedicated workforce, which also leads to a risk associated with the human factor.
Therefore, to reduce these risks, special solutions have been developed for the automatic processing of big data. In logistics, such tools can significantly help by identifying patterns and trends, and also help predict the overall performance of a logistics company. Such big data solutions are actively used to optimize the supply chain, fuel tracking, preventative maintenance of vehicles, etc.
Route planning
In EC operations, thousands of orders are processed from customers around the world, transportation is a big problem that can affect customer satisfaction in case of delayed delivery. In general, delivery destinations are random, and transport operators rarely have access to resources to optimize route planning and shorten delivery cycles.
However, this complex problem can be solved with the help of dynamic route planning systems, more and more of which appear every day. They help reduce planning time to a few minutes and allow you to control the process of loading and delivery of goods online. Last but not least, they also help to significantly optimize transportation costs.
Digital twins or backups of supply chain processes.
Reliability is the cornerstone of the logistics business, helping them maintain operational efficiency. However, if a major system crashes and data loss occurs, business downtime is unavoidable if you do not take care of security properly.
The easiest way to do this is to regularly back up data in the cloud by connecting physical assets and processes with their digital modeling. In particular, by creating digital copies of the data used in your logistics processes, you reduce the likelihood of a failure of one of the nodes in your network at some point and stopping your work process for an indefinite period of time.
Conclusions
Summarizing the above overview, these technologies can help e-commerce projects become more profitable for owners and at the same time affordable for consumers.
The combination of artificial intelligence, IoT, big data, real-time analytics, and digital twin technologies — these are what e-commerce enterprises should be guided to optimize their logistics processes. The introduction of these innovations promises to increase efficiency, reduce delivery time and cost, and increase customer satisfaction with digital retailers.
