Making headway into the complexities of warehousing for groceries

Say ‘Add to Cart’ and most of us will probably conjure up an electronic device screen with a small shopping cart icon and a ‘wish-list’ of things we intend to buy, rather than an actual shopping cart in a grocery store or supermarket.

Right from groceries, apparel, medicines and mobile phones to furniture and other household electronics, almost everything we need can now be purchased online in just a few clicks. And more and more consumers are opting to do so. The convenience of being able to shop anytime, from anywhere along with the benefits of discounts, one-day deliveries and easy return and exchange facilities, is leading to a change in consumer behaviour patterns and driving growth in e-commerce.

Market leading e-commerce giants continue to leverage this growth by increasingly widening the ambit of their product ranges and setting new standards of timely deliveries and customer satisfaction.

Adapting to evolving buying patterns in the new normal

Consumers today are very tech-savvy and attuned to buying goods online. Especially in the current times, when the global COVID-19 pandemic has led to a need for social distancing, e-commerce is gaining even more importance.

However, with lockdowns and containment zones, doorstep deliveries are not always possible. So e-commerce companies are exploring click-and-collect models or kerbside pickups wherein the products are delivered up to the entry point of a street or housing complex from where the customer needs to pick them up and take them home.

Apart from delivery models, there has also been a change in the items being purchased. Consumers are spending less on non-essential goods and more on essential goods like groceries, medicines, etc. The unprecedented situation and ensuing uncertainty in terms of a return to normal has led to consumers go into ‘panic buying’ mode and stock up on essential goods.

Effective warehousing for groceries: A need of the hour

To cater to the changing demands of customers, e-commerce retailers need to re-engineer their supply chains in order to ensure procurement, storage and deliveries of goods as required. Major retail giants in India are already expanding their groceries warehousing and optimising operations to offer swift, seamless deliveries. They are looking at warehouses across key consumption centres in the country to benefit from the e-commerce growth wave.

“We already have experience and expertise in e-commerce logistics. As partners to some of the biggest Indian and global e-commerce players, we are more than happy to venture into groceries warehousing for the first time and develop excellence here too. I have complete confidence in our abilities to adapt to unique requirements of groceries warehousing solutions and go live with new facilities and sites in record time”, says Anoop Chauhan, Chief Operating Officer – Supply Chain, AvvashyaCCI.

Efficient e-commerce logistics and warehousing solutions for groceries and FMCG

In addition to already offering supply chain management and warehousing solutions for food products at Pune, Mumbai and Bengaluru, going live with a 75,000 sq. ft. warehouse specifically for groceries at Ahmedabad has marked AvvashyaCCI’s entry into this sector characterised by constantly evolving requirements.

AvvashyaCCI’s expertise spans the entire range of requirements that include statutory licenses, hygiene maintenance while storing different categories of products and the capability to ensure safety and temperature control for a variety of goods including frozen foods, confectionaries, bakery products, food grains and lots more. This foray into warehousing for groceries is helping AvvashyaCCI’s customers to ride the surge in e-commerce, leverage the increasing demand for goods and essential products, and grow at a fast pace in these challenging times of COVID-19 and its impact.

Staying true to its reputation of providing customised solutions and working as an extended team of its customers, AvvashyaCCI’s planning and execution is aligned to the customer’s specific requirements. For example, when India went into lockdown, there was a significant shortage in transportation facilities and this led to a time lag in the receipt and consequent delivery of orders. But the team at AvvashyaCCI didn’t back down. They managed the safe and hygienic storage the products and as soon as the restrictions on transporting essential and non-essential goods were lifted, AvvashyaCCI coordinated with its e-commerce customers to ensure smooth and fast deliveries to their end consumers. This could not have been possible without AvvashyaCCI’s state-of-the-art solution design and facilities that are world-class in terms of their technical aspects, processes and systems.

A key aspect of efficient e-commerce logistics solutions is scalability. With the demand for groceries already on an upward trend, e-commerce companies are seeking to take it to the next level by offering constant discounts, sales and incentives to buy online. As a result, groceries warehousing partners like AvvashyaCCI are working towards offering customised end-to-end business supply chain management that can keep up with the constant fluctuations in demand and ensure optimal productivity.

Highest levels of safety, training, compliance and certifications

Considering that groceries have a very low shelf life, it is important that warehousing solutions take into account the stringent levels of hygiene and temperature control needed to store them properly. In addition, it is also necessary to keep rodents and pests away. With a zero-compromise attitude to safety, team AvvashyaCCI makes sure all the necessary steps are taken. Its warehouses come with the assurance of FSSAI, APMC, and DSC certifications, all of which are part of mandatory compliance for warehousing of groceries. The team has also been collaborating with customers to come up with innovative solutions for storing different categories of products at different locations that are most feasible.

Understanding the customers’ concerns for safety, especially during a global pandemic, AvvashyaCCI has been flexible and adaptable. It has modified processes and SOPs to integrate the highest levels of COVID-19 care and safety across operations and warehouses in all locations. In order to ensure that social distancing is maintained effectively across the warehouses, work is carried out in multiple shifts so as to comply with the norms of minimal workforce on-site. Wherever possible, team members operate remotely and support customers online using digital tools and technology. For those in the office, use of masks and sanitizers is compulsory, the entire warehouse is sanitized regularly, temperature and oxygen checks are carried out for staff members and visitors, careful attention is paid to the hygienic packaging of products, and physical contact is minimized.

AvvashyaCCI is set apart by its team of professionals who are experts in business supply chain management, understand the industry sector and have undergone intense operational training. Their skill-sets and level of training are among the best in the industry and AvvashyaCCI continues to make sure that its team is a class apart with continuous trainings, meetings and sessions. Constant tool box meetings ensure timely operations that deliver on promises and in the current times, COVID-19 safety has become a very important part of this training. Awareness programmes are regularly undertaken not just for staff members but even drivers, handlers, equipment operators. They are encouraged to follow safety protocol even outside of the premises, when they are at home or on-road. Everyone works with a sense of responsibility and understanding that even a single case of COVID-19 infection may require the operations to be brought to a standstill in order to completely sanitize the facility before beginning work again, leading to delays and lags that must be prevented at all costs.

Looking forward to new opportunities and success

AvvashyaCCI’s entry into warehousing for groceries has been an eventful journey full of learning and unravelling the complexities. Today, the organisation is geared to offer quick turnarounds of as low as 60 days for making a site or facility for groceries warehousing live. And that too, with all documentation and compliances met for warehouses that are well-equipped with necessary amenities including fire alarms, sprinklers, racking, shelving; pretty much everything that the customers need!

In the next 60 days, AvvashyaCCI is already all set to go live with 10 lakh sq. ft. of newly built-to-suit warehouses in NCR, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. This performance-driven futuristic approach establishes all the more strongly, AvvashyaCCI’s nationwide track record of seamless execution and timely completion of projects. Businesses across the country surely stand to benefit from the impeccable service offerings of one of the market leaders in contract logistics.

As customer expectations evolve and business supply chains get re-engineered, armed with expertise, a passion for excellence and futuristic approach to digitally-enable operations, AvvashyaCCI is ready to take forward strides in e-commerce logistics services and end-to-end warehousing solutions for managing groceries.