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Benefits of partnering with a 3PL provider for self-serve kiosk repair and maintenance services

As technology continues to evolve, businesses across various sectors are increasingly relying on kiosk systems for efficient customer service. From ATMs and point-of-sale devices to smart parcel lockers and self-check-in kiosks, these self-service technologies are becoming an essential part of the modern business landscape.

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How Section 321 Helps U.S. Direct-to-Consumer Retailers Save Money

Smart retailers are now looking for ways to take additional cost out of the value chain without sacrificing customer experience. One strategy where our clients are seeing strong results is cross-border shipping using the little-known Section 321 exemption.  In addition, most US Online retailers want to have the ability to expand, not only into Canada, but globally.

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Guide to Kitting for Health, Beauty, and Wellness E-commerce Brands

In the health, beauty, and wellness e-commerce market, strategies that streamline inventory management, enhance customer satisfaction, and boost sales can help brands gain a competitive advantage. One of these strategies is specialized kitting and packing services. But what exactly is kitting? How does it differ from bundling? And why is it important for health, beauty, and wellness e-commerce brands to consider how their kitting operations effect their supply chain in addition to their customer experience?

In this blog we’ll explore the benefits of kitting for health, beauty, and wellness e-commerce brands, its role in enhancing customer experiences, best practices for kitting, and how to choose the right kitting service provider.

What is Kitting?

Kitting is when individual items or product SKUs are packaged together to create one product or “kit” that’s ready to be delivered to a consumer. As a single shipment, the kitted products become one new SKU prior to being shipped. Kitting is an effective inventory management and e-commerce technique that packs, stores, and ships related individual products together.

Product kits might be variations of the same product or provide an assortment of complimentary products that tend to be ordered together.  They also offer an excellent avenue for retailers to move slow-selling products by kitting them with higher volume items. Kitting techniques are also used for subscription services, which continue to grow in popularity. Flexible kitting operations allow retailers to run promotions related to the time of year, holidays or sales by changing the look of the packaging, adding special inserts, etc. This can be an effective e-commerce inventory control management and sales technique for your brand.

Kitting vs. Bundling

Kitting and bundling techniques ship a selection of individual items in one package. A kit offers value by pre-packaging different items in bulk to create items such as gift sets or subscription service kits ready for sale. A bundle is picked item by item after an order is placed. Bundling is often used as an incentive to buy more and save, while kitting is a strategy often used to move less popular items or sell products through partnerships with several different labels.

Different Types of Kitting

Different kitting methods allow you to pivot operations to meet changing customer needs and manage kitting to improve inventory movement. Kitting solutions include:

Kit-to-Stock: This refers to pre-kitting inventory to await specific customer orders and maintaining stock levels to ensure fulfillment requirements are met. An example of this method is subscription boxes. Subscription kits create “experiences” with a mix of themed products sent out weekly or monthly. Subscription boxes are pre-packaged, ready to be picked and shipped under one SKU.

Mens health and wellness kitting

Kit-to-Order: When kits are created as clients send orders, or as customer’s order them. This is also known as ‘On-demand’ kitting. These personalized kits contain separate items selected by customers, assembled when the order is received, and charged as individual SKUs.

Key Elements of Successful Kitting

Successful kitting requires careful thought to ensure it appeals to customers. This includes:

  • Product selection and bundling: Kitting logical products together by identifying common SKU combinations is more likely to appeal to your customers.
  • Inventory management and forecasting: Using warehouse management software to identify top sellers and slow movers allows you to sell slow movers on the back of your most popular items. Understanding the numbers and customer behavior increases kit appeal while also keeping items organized as SKUs become more complicated.
  • Customized packaging and labeling: Creating customized packaging sets you apart from the competition, whether it is a unique, branded box or themed packaging such as shipping beauty items in a makeup bag or summer skincare items in a beach tote. Labeling applies to a unique identifier, such as a barcode or RFID tag used for tracking purposes.

Benefits of Kitting for E-commerce Brands

Kitting is essential for e-commerce success providing several benefits as a strategic logistics management and supply chain solution, including:

  • Improved order fulfillment efficiency: By putting together multiple products, kitting makes locating and picking packages easier during the fulfillment process. From an inventory control standpoint, you manage fewer SKUs, improving inventory tracking and maintenance efficiency.
  • Enhanced customer experience: Kitting allows you to create personalized shopping experiences based on customer preferences for health, beauty, and wellness products. You also reduce the risk of human errors with less manual picking, leading to enhanced customer satisfaction.
  • Increased sales and revenue: Kitting increases revenue by improving your Average Order Value (AOV). It also allows you to raise awareness of deadstock, tracking slow-moving inventory and pairing it with top sellers. Most customers will avoid returning kits as they are likely to enjoy the purchase as a whole compared to individual purchases.
  • Faster shipping and reduced shipping costs: Kitting streamlines the shipping process and reduces the risk of costly human error. A faster fulfillment process allows you to enhance shipment and delivery times to improve customer satisfaction. Cost savings are also realized through optimized warehouse space.

Kitting and packing services holidays

Steps in the Kitting Process

Kitting is a seven-step process often fulfilled by a third-party logistics (3PL) provider, including:

  1. Planning and product selection
  2. Inventory management and forecasting
  3. Procurement of components and materials
  4. Quality Control and Inspection
  5. Assembly and packaging
  6. Labeling and branding
  7. Inventory tracking and management

Best Practices for Kitting in Health, Beauty, and Wellness E-commerce

When creating kits, you can follow these best practices:

  • Personalization: Create personalized kits based on customer preferences.
  • Increase basket value: Use cross-selling and upselling opportunities to increase basket value.
  • Forge partnerships: Collaborate with like-minded suppliers and vendors to create unique, appealing subscription kits.
  • Maintain quality: Adapt quality control and product safety best practices to protect your customers and grow trust in your brand.

Health, Beauty, and Wellness Kitting for e-commerce

Choosing the Right Kitting Service Provider

Third-party logistics companies like SCI provide kitting services for e-commerce health, beauty, and wellness brands. SCI offers the following expertise:

  • Capability: SCI offers a broad range of logistics services to handle your entire order fulfillment, including kitting and packing, inventory management, technical services, a wide range of transportation management solutions.
  • Specialized experience: SCI has years of experience in the logistics management industry with specialized services related to kitting and packing in the healthcare supply chain and/or beauty and wellness sectors. We have the flexibility to meet your brands vision and create the perfect un-boxing moment. Our agile services easily allow you to add special messaging, promotional inserts, special tissue paper, and more.
  • Network: SCI has an expansive coast-to-coast Canadian warehouse and distribution network to save on shipping costs and improve customer experience.
  • Supply chain solutions: SCI has a team of dedicated supply chain experts to help plan, and optimize the best kitting solution for your supply chain. We can help source materials and advise on best industry practices to save on costs and provide a better customer experience.
  • Technology: By partnering with SCI you gain access to the latest technology and digital solutions to maximize efficiencies, reduce manual tasks and decrease errors. Our innovative technology and business intelligence tools also provide insights with key metrics and inventory control management to help you optimize your kitting operations.

SCI’s Kitting and Packing Services

Kitting and packing is fundamental to your health, beauty, and wellness e-commerce strategy. In some ways the appearance of the box and presentation of the product has become as important as the appearance of the product itself. Brands looking to convey a cohesive brand identity, an aspirational lifestyle, or a particular message need to design their packages with the un-boxing experience in mind. Working with an experienced 3PL with in-house value-added services such as packing and kitting can ensure you exceed customer expectations.

SCI is a leader in providing agile in-house packing and kitting services across Canada. As your 3PL partner our services we can increase speed-to-market, reduce costs, and risks. Specific co-packing and kitting areas have been engineered in our warehouses to ensure optimal flow and higher productivity. This allows teams to process significant daily fluctuations and allows for same-day e-commerce order processing. We also provide quality assurance oversight, including end-of-line order accuracy checks prior to shipping confirmation.

No matter how unique your packing and kitting needs are, SCI’s team can skillfully fulfill your orders to satisfy you and your customers. Whether you ship stock or offer custom subscription kits, we’ll execute a fast and accurate kitting process, with a personalized touch where needed.

For more information on kitting and packing in the healthcare supply chain, contact our 3pl experts today!

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How to Streamline Your Kiosk Logistics by Partnering with an End-To-End 3PL Service Provider

Recent SCI research showed that kiosk technology plays a vital role in digital transformation strategies for Canadian organizations. Kiosks encompass technology such as check-in terminals, retail self-checkouts, ATMs, smart parcel lockers, vending machines, fast-food ordering terminals, wayfinding maps, etc.  77% of the businesses surveyed planned to include kiosk technology in their operations within the next five years. Self-service technologies allow businesses to create better customer experiences through seamless contact.

White Glove Delivery Service-Parcel Locker

Benefits of Kiosks

According to the 2021 Canadian Kiosk Market Report, by 2026, kiosk users will see improvements in the following areas:

One of the challenges of deploying kiosk technology is the complex nature of managing multiple vendors who are involved with the project. At SCI we simplify and streamline your projects by providing comprehensive coast-to-coast kiosk solutions including project management, installation, maintenance, repair, and parts management; all from one integrated partner.

SCI is one of Canada’s leading 3PL service providers with national coverage to deliver end-to-end kiosk management services. Here we explain how partnering with SCI can streamline your kiosk logistics management for seamless national installation, implementation, and ongoing kiosk maintenance.

Streamlining Kiosk Logistics with an Integrated 3PL Partner

A centralized kiosk logistics provider like SCI ensures your kiosk solution reaches your end user with limited disruption and reduced costs. End-to-end project planning and management from one provider keeps your kiosk program on time and on budget, with seamless communication through one main point of contact. This means you’ll have less vendors to manage and less touch-points, which can improve lead times and reduce risks.

As your 3PL partner, SCI’s comprehensive kiosk management solutions offer the following expert advantages:

  • National coverage: Our coast-to-coast network of warehousing, transportation, and forward stocking services includes 32+ distribution centers across Canada and 35+ forward-stocking critical parts locations to reach 94% of Canada’s population within 4 hours. We also have 10+ white glove facilities to meet your needs.
  • Strategic expertise: We are specialists within the self-service technology industry and one of Canada’s leading providers of strategic technology supply chain solutions. Our 46 years of experience and intimate knowledge of the industry trends enables us to best serve our clients and their customers.
  • Responsive field services: SCI’s field services include break/fix, swap, assembly, install, network set-up, training, and demo. Our in-house, locally situated technicians fix issues on site, which maximizes uptime and eliminates the potential risk and extra cost of working with multiple vendors. We also offer best-in-class customer service and 24/7 bi-lingual support.
  • True end-to-end project management: When we say end-to-end, we mean end-to-end. As your kiosk logistics partner we manage logistics, maintenance, installation, repairs, and parts management.
  • Canadian Market Insights: SCI’s Canadian market experts proactively advise on the best, most efficient roll-out process based on local infrastructure and geography.

Benefits of Partnering with an End-to-End 3PL Service Provider for Kiosk Logistics

With a single logistics expert, you also have 24/7 access throughout your supply chain to in-house, local technicians ready to fix issues on-site. Also, your kiosk deployment is managed from start to finish, including:

  • Project planning, design, and logistics management to ensure you have the most efficient and economical roll-out of your kiosks
  • Warehousing management, staging and configuration
  • Transportation and white glove delivery utilizing knowledge of the local infrastructure and geography to determine the most efficient delivery process
  • Installation, configuration, testing, and training on the same day to limit the complexity of the process and reduce the time it takes to have your kiosks up and running

White Glove Delivery Installation

Once deployed, you continue to benefit from same-day critical parts delivery, kiosk repair, maintenance, end-to-end ticket management, and 24/7 technical support.

With a single, national 3PL partner to oversee your kiosk management and deployment, you gain peace of mind. Using a proven, streamlined process that ensures efficient, cost-effective deployment, you can deploy kiosks to improve customer/visitor experience and employee productivity. Highly trained, professional teams deliver, install, assemble, and configure your kiosks and will even provide basic training to your customer so they understand how the technology works. All equipment is handled with the utmost care and expertise by SCI’s white glove service team trained to perform complex, specialty delivery, and installments, specializing in kiosk deployment.

Tap into SCI’s extensive network, robust portfolio of services and years of expertise that deliver a competitive edge for your kiosk business. Request a consultation today to connect with our experienced kiosk solutions team who will help you plan for today’s needs and tomorrow’s opportunities. You can also download our kiosk report for more insights.

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How Localized and Cross-Border E-commerce Fulfillment Can Help Businesses Expand into New Markets

During times of economic uncertainty or recession, it is important to strategically evaluate your supply chain and see where efficiencies can be implemented. Direct-to-consumer brands can use a strategic combination of localization and south-bound shipping using the Section 321 exemption to create a North American supply chain that creates efficiencies and saves money, without sacrificing the customer experience.

What is Localization?

Localization in the context of supply chain fulfillment is the process of placing inventory in warehouses in the same country as your consumers in order to deliver product to them more conveniently, without the hassle of cross-border shipping. For example, U.S. e-commerce companies can place inventory in Canadian warehouses to expedite the fulfillment and delivery of Canadian customer orders. This method reduces transportation costs, provides faster order fulfillment for Canadian customers, and improves the customer experience through faster delivery and no hidden cross-border duty or tariff fees.

An example of this is SCI’s recent partnership with U.S. brand, Dr. Squatch, a leading men’s natural soap and personal care brand. SCI partnered with Dr. Squatch to successfully expand their e-commerce and wholesale business into the Canadian market through localization. With SCI’s effective end-to-end supply chain strategy including localized warehousing, fulfillment, and transportation operations, SCI was able to support Dr. Squatch’s accelerated growth, resulting in reduced delivery times and improved shipping costs for Canadian consumers. Read our case study on this partnership to learn more: https://www.sci.ca/insights/case-study/dr-squatch-case-study/

What is Section 321 Southbound Fulfillment?

Section 321 fulfillment is a cost-effective way for direct-to-consumer (DTC) companies to increase profit margins and save up to 20% in duty and tariff costs. Section 321 is an exemption in the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement that allows small shipments valued under $800 USD to enter the U.S. duty-free. For DTC e-commerce retailers, this offers an opportunity to reduce their cost per unit through waived or refunded import duties on items that enter Canada bound for U.S. recipients.

How the Section 321 Fulfillment Process Works:

  • Goods are imported into Canadian warehouses
  • Goods are cleared through custom and added to inventory
  • When an order is placed, the item is picked, packed, and shipped from the Canadian facility the same day
  • Items are shipped across the border and delivered in partnership with U.S. carriers
  • Any duties and tariffs paid in Canada are refunded

By saving up to 20% on duties and tariffs, this lowers the cost per unit of retailer’s product, which can be invested elsewhere in the company, or the savings can be passed on to the consumer.

Section 321 Shipping

Localization & Section 321: Creating a Strategic North American Supply Chain

Using localization and Section 321 as a strategy not only saves money on duties and tariffs, but also creates a more efficient North American distribution model. By consolidating distribution in strategic centers in Canada, e-commerce retailers can optimize operations by servicing both the U.S. and Canadian markets from a single location (rather than having both U.S. and Canadian distribution centers servicing each market). For example, SCI’s distribution center in Montreal, Canada, can distribute conveniently to customers in Eastern Canada, as well as the Eastern United States. Our Vancouver warehouse can serve the western states, and Toronto warehouses can serve the central states.

Benefits of Localization & Section 321 for U.S. Brands

For U.S. based brands, adding inventory to fulfillment centers in Canada offers the opportunity to expand distribution into a new market of 40+ million Canadian consumers. This approach allows brands to test international growth in a new, geographically close market. Plus, by localizing in Canada your brand can deliver your products faster to Canadians with fewer shipping costs. Once you have inventory situated in Canadian warehouses, you can ship products southbound to U.S. e-commerce customers using the Section 321 exemption and save on duty and tariff costs.

Benefits of Localization & Section 321 for Canadian Brands

Canadian brands looking to expand into the US can also take advantage of Section 321. If you’re currently only selling to the Canadian market, but have interest from U.S. consumers, and would like to test selling to this market, using Section 321 fulfillment provides this opportunity. To do this you would partner with a 3PL who can fulfill orders from warehouses near the Canada-U.S. border, and ship to U.S. customers. This method enables you to leverage the Section 321 exemption to save money on duties and tariffs. You can also save on operations and inventory holding costs by fulfilling orders solely from Canadian warehouses, rather than paying for additional warehousing and fulfillment from in the United States.

 

Cross-Border Fulfillment vs. Localized Fulfillment

Businesses usually follow one of two distribution models when serving international consumers.

1. Cross-border fulfillment

Cross-border fulfillment uses the traditional method of packing and shipping the order from your country to the customer internationally.

Pros:

  • Better for small e-commerce companies just starting and lacking capital for expansion
  • One central distribution centre for all customers
  • Low cost and speed-to-market

Cons:

  • Some buyers are still uncomfortable with cross-border purchases, even from neighbouring countries, over a fear of hidden shipping fees or exchange rates
  • Taxes, customs, and international shipping rates are often passed on to customers who are unwilling to foot the bill, leading to shopping cart abandonment
  • Longer delivery times

2. Localization

Localization uses warehousing in the same country as your customers.

Pros:

  • Decreased shipping costs for the consumer
  • Quicker order fulfillment for the consumer
  • Decreased carbon emissions from transportation due to fulfilling orders locally

Cons:

  • It is a significant investment in time and money to move inventory and distribution to another country
  • You may need to apply for licenses to conduct business in a new country, adhere to additional product regulations, etc.

If you’re looking to expand into new markets, or create supply chain efficiencies, now is the time to explore localized fulfillment and Section 321 opportunities with an experienced Canadian 3PL like SCI. For more information, Request a consultation with our localization and southbound fulfillment experts.

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SCI Wins “Overall Analytics Solution of The Year” Award From SupplyTech Breakthrough

SCI, a leading Canadian 3PL provider specializing in e-commerce fulfillment and transportation management, announced today it is the recipient of the “Overall Analytics Solution of The Year” award in the annual SupplyTech Breakthrough Awards. The awards, conducted by SupplyTech Breakthrough – a leading independent market intelligence organization, evaluates and recognizes standout technology companies, products and services in the supply chain technology and logistics industry around the globe.

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