Originally posted 11/28/2018
Only one in four manufacturers are fulfilling e-commerce in-house, while another 40% are using 3PL warehouses, according to a new report from PMMI Business Intelligence.
Sixty-five percent of respondents are using etailers to market their products, with 54% reporting selling through Amazon. Thirty-three percent are selling direct to consumer.
“We would need to develop new ways of distribution for e-commerce products,” said one Packaging Engineer from a nutraceuticals company.
“Our supply chain is for high speed mass production and e-commerce requires customization to meet delivery demands,” said one Packaging Manager, for an industry-leading CPG.
3PL companies interviewed predict their businesses to grow, on average, by 31% in the next two years. Growth fueled by the rise of e-commerce.
Every logistics supplier is looking for technology advancements to meet the challenges of e-commerce. Forty-four percent of logistics suppliers reported using wearable technology to improve pick and ship accuracy and authenticate the product.
Bringing fulfillment in-house would require more automation. “Bringing e-commerce fulfillment and shipping in-house would require sufficient quantities, enough for high speed automation,” said a Sr. Specialist, Engineering, for an over-the-counter drug manufacturer.
“Bringing e-commerce fulfillment in house would be done to achieve greater cost effectiveness,” said a Sr. Packaging Engineer for a consumer goods operation.
Another option is having Amazon right in your own plant handling fulfillment. “Amazon is inside our operations now and have a spot they use for collating products and shipping. They are a critical partner and know e-commerce will spike within the next 10 years,” offered one CPG product manager.
There are pros and cons to handling fulfillment in-house or outsourcing to a 3PL.
For more information on how e-commerce is impacting CPGs, 3PLs and packaging OEMs, download the FREE Executive Summary below. PMMI members can access entire 56-page report here.
To see all ten articles in this series, click here.
![“Another key [UDI] benefit, because we're calling that product by the same name across the healthcare supply chain… rich and robust data that we can access around supply consumption and utilization rates. One of the buzz terms we've heard during the COVID-19 crisis was what's my burn rate? How fast am I going through gowns, masks, gloves?” – Mike Schiller, Senior Director at AHRMM](https://img.healthcarepackaging.com/files/base/pmmi/all/image/2020/08/UDI.5f4d326e41d53.png?auto=format&fit=crop&h=146&w=340)
