Step inside the world between clicking ‘buy now’ and unboxing, with this 3PL providing bespoke services to emerging and boutique lifestyle brands to bridge the gap between purchase and delivery.
The world of logistics is a unique perspective of the fashion industry. The often unknown “grey area” between clicking ‘buy now’ and the moment you get a notification to check the door for your delivery!
For one team, this little-known grey area is lit by neon sign perched above an entranceway flanked by racks of ruffles, sequins and prints, with an adorable pug padding along the carpet in a custom-made high-vis vest. Welcome to Lexington Logistics.
Lexington Logistics provides white glove pick, pack, and fulfillment services to a range of emerging and boutique brands, allowing them to take the next step in building and expanding their business — and they do it with style.
Meet Deanne Luke, founder of Lexington Logistics, one of Australia's leading white glove 3PLs — delivering bespoke pick, pack, and fulfillment services from the heart of Brisbane.
Deanne’s story started in the fashion industry, as a business consultant, providing advice and business support for many years before identifying a gap in the market. That grey area from purchase to product delivery, and specifically, how to help emerging brands to make the jump from boxing orders in their living room, to outsourcing logistics completely.
“Our focus is to provide exceptional quality and responsive logistics services and warehouse solutions to small or boutique brands and start-ups,” said Luke.
“We treat each of our brands like they were our own and take care when looking after your products from warehousing through to pick, pack and distribution. Your brand and product is your image and we want to ensure that we are an extension of your business not a separate entity.”
This is no metaphor, Luke explains. Indeed, the first step they take when bringing on any new customer is to ensure they are set up in Lexington’s WMS system, CartonCloud. This ensures online ordering is integrated directly from the shopfront into the warehouse system, that custom packaging can be selected and fulfilled, and so that the customer has full access to view order processing, inventory levels and stock reports directly from their own online dashboard.
“We work with brands that we absolutely love, and that we want to be around,” she said.
“It’s something that is really important to us, that we aren’t a complete third party, we part of their integrated process and an extension to their operation.
“To hand over your brand to a third party is a big thing and we want to make sure that we can actually uphold their values, their brand messaging, their key themes to be able to then ship out their product exactly the same way they would in-house.”
Providing outsourced logistics services for omnichannel and e-commerce clients requires effective software integrations for online ordering, and this is one of the key areas they rely on their WMS software, to enable them to provide exceptional service to their customers.
“When we onboard a client, the first part of that is to ensure we have CartonCloud set up, to ensure their integration is spot on. Once we have everything connected, [our customers] actually don’t need to touch what we do or how it operates — we’re able to integrate our systems together to a complete, autonomous process.
To simplify processes even further for their customers, Lexington also provide access for each customer into their WMS system, from a secure customer dashboard, where they can see orders, track fulfillment and manage stock levels directly, 24/7.
“It brings them closer together,” she said. “They don’t feel that they are completely separated from their brand and the transparency is there, so they can see stock levels in the warehouse, and the orders that are being placed and processed.
“For us, to take them on board and see them flourish, and actually start to do 20, 30, up to 100 orders a day — that’s why we do the work that we do.”
Want to know more? Listen to Deanne Luke’s Podcast Delivering Joy interviewing industry leaders to explore how brands are going above and beyond to deliver joy to customers or find Lexington Logistics online.
Visit www.cartoncloud.com to learn more about their easy-to-use, integrated WMS/TMS that allows 3PLs to do more for their customers.
About CartonCloud:
CartonCloud provides logistics software, built by logistics people. Their powerful, cloud-based integrated WMS/TMS software enables small-medium logistics businesses to streamline workflows, automate data and grow their business.
Supply chains are poised for accelerated adoption of mobile robots and drones as those technologies mature and companies focus on implementing artificial intelligence (AI) and automation across their logistics operations.
That’s according to data from Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Mobile Robots and Drones, released this week. The report shows that several mobile robotics technologies will mature over the next two to five years, and also identifies breakthrough and rising technologies set to have an impact further out.
Gartner’s Hype Cycle is a graphical depiction of a common pattern that arises with each new technology or innovation through five phases of maturity and adoption. Chief supply chain officers can use the research to find robotic solutions that meet their needs, according to Gartner.
Gartner, Inc.
The mobile robotic technologies set to mature over the next two to five years are: collaborative in-aisle picking robots, light-cargo delivery robots, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for transport, mobile robotic goods-to-person systems, and robotic cube storage systems.
“As organizations look to further improve logistic operations, support automation and augment humans in various jobs, supply chain leaders have turned to mobile robots to support their strategy,” Dwight Klappich, VP analyst and Gartner fellow with the Gartner Supply Chain practice, said in a statement announcing the findings. “Mobile robots are continuing to evolve, becoming more powerful and practical, thus paving the way for continued technology innovation.”
Technologies that are on the rise include autonomous data collection and inspection technologies, which are expected to deliver benefits over the next five to 10 years. These include solutions like indoor-flying drones, which utilize AI-enabled vision or RFID to help with time-consuming inventory management, inspection, and surveillance tasks. The technology can also alleviate safety concerns that arise in warehouses, such as workers counting inventory in hard-to-reach places.
“Automating labor-intensive tasks can provide notable benefits,” Klappich said. “With AI capabilities increasingly embedded in mobile robots and drones, the potential to function unaided and adapt to environments will make it possible to support a growing number of use cases.”
Humanoid robots—which resemble the human body in shape—are among the technologies in the breakthrough stage, meaning that they are expected to have a transformational effect on supply chains, but their mainstream adoption could take 10 years or more.
“For supply chains with high-volume and predictable processes, humanoid robots have the potential to enhance or supplement the supply chain workforce,” Klappich also said. “However, while the pace of innovation is encouraging, the industry is years away from general-purpose humanoid robots being used in more complex retail and industrial environments.”
An eight-year veteran of the Georgia company, Hakala will begin his new role on January 1, when the current CEO, Tero Peltomäki, will retire after a long and noteworthy career, continuing as a member of the board of directors, Cimcorp said.
According to Hakala, automation is an inevitable course in Cimcorp’s core sectors, and the company’s end-to-end capabilities will be crucial for clients’ success. In the past, both the tire and grocery retail industries have automated individual machines and parts of their operations. In recent years, automation has spread throughout the facilities, as companies want to be able to see their entire operation with one look, utilize analytics, optimize processes, and lead with data.
“Cimcorp has always grown by starting small in the new business segments. We’ve created one solution first, and as we’ve gained more knowledge of our clients’ challenges, we have been able to expand,” Hakala said in a release. “In every phase, we aim to bring our experience to the table and even challenge the client’s initial perspective. We are interested in what our client does and how it could be done better and more efficiently.”
Although many shoppers will
return to physical stores this holiday season, online shopping remains a driving force behind peak-season shipping challenges, especially when it comes to the last mile. Consumers still want fast, free shipping if they can get it—without any delays or disruptions to their holiday deliveries.
One disruptor that gets a lot of headlines this time of year is package theft—committed by so-called “porch pirates.” These are thieves who snatch parcels from front stairs, side porches, and driveways in neighborhoods across the country. The problem adds up to billions of dollars in stolen merchandise each year—not to mention headaches for shippers, parcel delivery companies, and, of course, consumers.
Given the scope of the problem, it’s no wonder online shoppers are worried about it—especially during holiday season. In its annual report on package theft trends, released in October, the
security-focused research and product review firm Security.org found that:
17% of Americans had a package stolen in the past three months, with the typical stolen parcel worth about $50. Some 44% said they’d had a package taken at some point in their life.
Package thieves poached more than $8 billion in merchandise over the past year.
18% of adults said they’d had a package stolen that contained a gift for someone else.
Ahead of the holiday season, 88% of adults said they were worried about theft of online purchases, with more than a quarter saying they were “extremely” or “very” concerned.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are some low-tech steps consumers can take to help guard against porch piracy along with some high-tech logistics-focused innovations in the pipeline that can protect deliveries in the last mile. First, some common-sense advice on avoiding package theft from the Security.org research:
Install a doorbell camera, which is a relatively low-cost deterrent.
Bring packages inside promptly or arrange to have them delivered to a secure location if no one will be at home.
Consider using click-and-collect options when possible.
If the retailer allows you to specify delivery-time windows, consider doing so to avoid having packages sit outside for extended periods.
These steps may sound basic, but they are by no means a given: Fewer than half of Americans consider the timing of deliveries, less than a third have a doorbell camera, and nearly one-fifth take no precautions to prevent package theft, according to the research.
Tech vendors are stepping up to help. One example is
Arrive AI, which develops smart mailboxes for last-mile delivery and pickup. The company says its Mailbox-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform will revolutionize the last mile by building a network of parcel-storage boxes that can be accessed by people, drones, or robots. In a nutshell: Packages are placed into a weatherproof box via drone, robot, driverless carrier, or traditional delivery method—and no one other than the rightful owner can access it.
Although the platform is still in development, the company already offers solutions for business clients looking to secure high-value deliveries and sensitive shipments. The health-care industry is one example: Arrive AI offers secure drone delivery of medical supplies, prescriptions, lab samples, and the like to hospitals and other health-care facilities. The platform provides real-time tracking, chain-of-custody controls, and theft-prevention features. Arrive is conducting short-term deployments between logistics companies and health-care partners now, according to a company spokesperson.
The MaaS solution has a pretty high cool factor. And the common-sense best practices just seem like solid advice. Maybe combining both is the key to a more secure last mile—during peak shipping season and throughout the year as well.
The Boston-based enterprise software vendor Board has acquired the California company Prevedere, a provider of predictive planning technology, saying the move will integrate internal performance metrics with external economic intelligence.
According to Board, the combined technologies will integrate millions of external data points—ranging from macroeconomic indicators to AI-driven predictive models—to help companies build predictive models for critical planning needs, cutting costs by reducing inventory excess and optimizing logistics in response to global trade dynamics.
That is particularly valuable in today’s rapidly changing markets, where companies face evolving customer preferences and economic shifts, the company said. “Our customers spend significant time analyzing internal data but often lack visibility into how external factors might impact their planning,” Jeff Casale, CEO of Board, said in a release. “By integrating Prevedere, we eliminate those blind spots, equipping executives with a complete view of their operating environment. This empowers them to respond dynamically to market changes and make informed decisions that drive competitive advantage.”
Material handling automation provider Vecna Robotics today named Karl Iagnemma as its new CEO and announced $14.5 million in additional funding from existing investors, the Waltham, Massachusetts firm said.
The fresh funding is earmarked to accelerate technology and product enhancements to address the automation needs of operators in automotive, general manufacturing, and high-volume warehousing.
Iagnemma comes to the company after roles as an MIT researcher and inventor, and with leadership titles including co-founder and CEO of autonomous vehicle technology company nuTonomy. The tier 1 supplier Aptiv acquired Aptiv in 2017 for $450 million, and named Iagnemma as founding CEO of Motional, its $4 billion robotaxi joint venture with automaker Hyundai Motor Group.
“Automation in logistics today is similar to the current state of robotaxis, in that there is a massive market opportunity but little market penetration,” Iagnemma said in a release. “I join Vecna Robotics at an inflection point in the material handling market, where operators are poised to adopt automation at scale. Vecna is uniquely positioned to shape the market with state-of-the-art technology and products that are easy to purchase, deploy, and operate reliably across many different workflows.”