As the line between web and traditional retail store fulfillment blurs, brands need to assess their fulfillment capabilities and those of their 3PL multi-channel distribution partners.

Consumers prefer to be channel agnostic. They want to complete a purchase and receive/return the product to and from any channel they choose. And they want the brands they buy from to align their businesses to make that happen.

Are brands there yet? Let’s say they’re evolving.

It costs $8,500 dollars to replace a warehouse worker.

Sound like a lot? Well, that’s actually the low end. 

Calculating just the direct, trackable dollars, the cost to replace one warehouse worker can reach 25% of that worker’s salary. Using an average warehouse associate salary of around $34,000 (Glassdoor), $8,500 is about where you end up. But the real costs, when you factor in lost productivity and other indirect impacts, are much, much higher.

Much of the cost and complexity in CPG supply chains happens post manufacturing.

Think about it. You might have one product – a potato chip – that gets packaged in dozens of ways. Historically, this final packaging has been handled as a discrete supply chain function. But an increasing number of CPG companies are recognizing the huge cost advantages up – to 30% of combined warehousing/packaging/freight costs – of integrating final packaging with distribution center operations, and working with secondary packaging suppliers that can make that happen.