Retail Supply Chain and Logistics Expo is the annual event organised by Fortem International, that brings together leading businesses and solution providers who can help optimise the supply chain processes. The Expo is undoubtedly UK’s leading retail-focused supply chain and logistics event, held in ExCeL, London, with over 100 exhibitors and notable keynote speakers.
The Parcelly team attended both days of the event; furthermore, our CEO & Founder, Sebastian Steinhauser, had the opportunity to present a talk on ‘The Future of Urban Logistics in 2023’ in Theatre 12 at the venue. We were happy to exhibit alongside some of our partners and peers: Evri, Urb-it, Whats3Words, and many more!
Source: Parcelly Limited
Day 1 started with several 1-1 meetings at the Parcelly stand, as well as a number of insightful keynote sessions. Louise Ryan, Senior Manager at Amazon Supply Chain gave an interesting presentation on ‘Customer Experience and Inventory Consolidation: The Keys to Growing Your E-commerce Business’. The main takeaway from the talk was the fact that “today's retail landscape is full of complexity […] and retailers must strive to simplify their operations wherever possible”. Later in the afternoon, Harpreet Sohal, Head of Business Information at Palletline Ltd, talked about “Delivering the Future of Logistics Today”. This informative session showcased the importance of holistic data collection and analysis. Harpreeet highlighted that “infrastructure, fleet management for future peaks and resource planning to maintain service are vital for growth and businesses of the future”.
Source: Parcelly Limited
Our CEO & Founder, Sebastian Steinhauser, took to Theatre 12 to discuss “The Future of Urban Logistics in 2023”, the session looked to analyse current trends and how they are affecting the way we move forward within the urban logistics space. Sebastian discussed innovative solutions that help meet customer expectations, the importance of considering sustainability when looking ahead, and how urban logistics can help businesses tackle key issues they are facing in the new economic climate. Sebastian highlighted that “with new consumer expectations the last mile becomes an overall hurdle, not only for e-commerce but for logistics in general”, which has been a running theme across industry events we have been attending since the beginning of the year. Further to that, the discussion around sustainability and its importance for the future of businesses was also key. Sebastian noted that “when you look at the environmental impact of what we consider the new normal for deliveries, we see that we need to optimise these processes”. Through that discussion, he explained how Hyper-local Warehousing allows businesses to optimise towards ULEZ and the increasing pressure from legislative sustainability regulations: “setting up hubs on the ULEZ border where a cross-docking opportunity is available solves a number of last-mile challenges whilst optimising the existing warehousing systems”. This was overall a very deep and insightful session which ended with an interactive Q&A. The audience was curious about the details of compliance, partnership opportunities and Parcelly solutions.
Source: Parcelly Limited
Day 2 kicked off started as busy as the previous, with queues of interested delegates at our stand SC3021, alongside a number of fascinating presentations. The morning started with a talk by James Hayes, Director of Business Development at Whistl Fulfilment, discussing “5 Top Strategies to Delight Consumers with Order Fulfilment”. These five strategies include review, sampling, cut-off time, messaging, delivery and an additional strategy – personalisation. He highlighted that “a satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all” and that communication with the customer is the foundation of every single strategy to ensure good service. The day continued with an insightful session from Ben Scherpenbergs, Director of Business & Program Management at PFS, who discussed a very important question – “Is It Ever Too Early to Prepare for Peak?”. In short, the answer is no – it is never too early to prepare for peak. He shared some tips on how businesses can prepare for peak season, for instance, asking the question “is your forecasting process T.R.U.E. - Timely. Resolute. Uncomplicated. Exact.”? Furthermore, he highlighted that peak preparation is not just about outbound strategy, Ben recommended to “work on the sense of community within your organisation, as success is a team effort”. Lastly, the day was coming to a close with a presentation by Craig Robinson and Glen Wilkinson, Head of Marketing and Head of Sales at Clarus WMS, who talked about the “Lessons from Supply Chain Giants: 5 Opportunities You Can't Afford to Miss Out on in 2023”. These five opportunities were: improving collaborations, increasing resilience, starting to think about sustainability, embracing technology to improve adaptability & agility, especially with the power of automation, and being open to change in order to learn from the mistakes of other businesses. Overall, these sessions provided the attendees with a lot of food for thought, many important topics were covered over these two days and gave us all a lot to consider for the upcoming months and beyond.
Source: Parcelly Limited
Top quotes
“Today's retail landscape is full of complexity […] and retailers must strive to simplify their operations wherever possible” - Louise Ryan, Senior Manager at Amazon Supply Chain
“It is important to leverage the opportunities of hyperlocal fulfilment within urban logistics as we can achieve consumer satisfaction, increase delivery speed and drive sustainability on the most cost ineffective part of the supply chain, the final mile” – Sebastian Steinhauser, CEO & Founder of Parcelly
“The efficiency of being proactive can give businesses a net result of less work in the future” - James Hayes, Director of Business Development at Whistl Fulfilment
“Creating intelligent databases is key to building business strategies of the future” - Harpreet Sohal, Head of Business Information at Palletline Ltd
Source: Parcelly Limited
Michal Pasternak, Senior Sales Executive at Parcelly:
“We’ve had a fantastic time at the Retail Supply Chain and Logistics Expo this year! It was great meeting so many partners and peers, as well as talking to a lot of contacts in-person. There were many interesting discussions and much to think about within the ever-changing logistics space.”
Overall, we truly enjoyed this years Supply Chain & Logistics Expo, speaking and exhibiting alongside so many industry leaders. A massive thank you to Fortem International for organising this grand event yet another year!
If you missed us there and would like to arrange a meeting with us, contact
