Why Barcoding Is Non-Negotiable For A Foolproof Fulfillment experience

The market seems to be moving toward faster deliveries with quick commerce being the demand of the hour. In fact, reports suggest that 42% of online shopping carts get abandoned if the seller does not present same-day delivery or sometimes even faster-shipping options.

Bigger marketplaces like Flipkart, and Amazon help you reach customers fast but the investment in remarketing and building up your consumer database is high. Smaller scale D2C brands usually focus on their product and user experience, and often do not have the wherewithal to set up their own fulfillment centers in multiple cities. Therefore, they automatically have to rely on these marketplaces for their fulfillment needs.

At present, end-to-end fulfillment partners like Blowhorn offer novel logistics solutions that help you reach your consumers on the same day in almost 70% of pin codes in India. One of the largely overlooked and underrated technologies that help us achieve this happens to be ‘Barcodes’.

Yes, you read that right. The series of black and white lines on a tag that you have been spotting on every product since your childhood, is actually the underlying tech behind the most advanced logistics solutions in India. This technology enables us to orchestrate dozens of pick-up points in the same city, across many cities nationwide for the same client - and deliver those parcels correctly on the same day!

Barcodes have a number of lesser-known benefits which makes it non-negotiable for ensuring a good fulfillment experience. Let’s explore some of the key advantages of barcoding that can upgrade your fulfillment efficiency and speed.

Reduces shipping time

Barcodes help in removing the manual effort of segregating and sorting the orders, which in turn brings down the delivery time. Sorting orders by a simple scanning process helps to orchestrate all stages of the logistics cycle and reach your customers even faster. All you need is a portable barcode scanner which is readily available at affordable prices.

Also, the data from barcode scanning is reliable and obtained rapidly. Such quick turnaround periods ensure there is no wastage of valuable time and resources on data entry or retrieval.

Improves efficiency in warehouse management

Assigning a unique barcode to all the packages at a warehouse helps to minimize human error and provide accurate data during the shipping process. Contingencies in the logistics cycle are usually unpredictable, but manual errors are avoidable. Inventory control also becomes more streamlined with barcode scanning.

Moreover, no matter wherever you are, you can check on your order easily at any stage of the delivery process via our advanced Warehouse Management System (WMS).

Lowers operational costs

Less dependency on manual labor for warehouse management translates to reduced operational costs for logistics. This brings down your overall fulfillment cost and helps you save thousands on shipping.

Real-time tracking in last-mile logistics

Transparency and visibility are becoming increasingly important to consumers. With an increasing demand for information flow to end customers, real-time tracking becomes imperative in last-mile logistics. With each order tagged by a barcode, tracking becomes seamless and easy for your brand as well as the end customer.

In the past, we have noticed tendencies where improper tracking details led to last-mile troubles. Implementing a barcode can prove to be an effective solution to this, as it helps both the brand and logistics partner to identify the exact point of failure. Doing a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) also becomes much easier with easily procurable data on every step of the shipping process.

Save on customer support

Thanks to barcoding, the live status of a package can be made accessible to the end consumer eagerly waiting for their order to arrive. In case of any unforeseen delay or failed delivery, the order can be traced back to its source easily, and the same information is passed on to the customer. This helps decrease customer follow-ups, and in turn, saves manpower on customer support services.

Lowers environmental impact

Imagine doing logistics in an era predating barcode scanning and the internet. Stacks of papers and ledger books were wasted on just a few orders. At the end of a busy month, the carbon footprint left behind was quite huge.

Today, thanks to digitized data from barcoding, any information on an order can be procured online instead of maintaining extensive records on paper. Talk about saving time, energy, and nature!

The ultimate result of a comprehensive barcoding system is a reduction in overall delivery times and a subsequent rise in customer delight. Both inexpensive and user-friendly, barcode scanning proves to be an indispensable tool for tracking logistics data, from pricing to inventory. If your fulfillment service is not doing barcoding yet, perhaps it is time for you to find a new partner for faster, more efficient fulfillment.

To know more about how Blowhorn can boost your business with an extensive list of fulfillment solutions that involves barcoding at every step, talk to our experts here.