Your E-Commerce Wishlist—Fulfilled

Maersk Integrates Your Supply Chain and IT Platform from Factory to Front Door

Everyone knows today’s online consumers hold high standards of fast, free, trackable delivery—but what’s not known is the standard for how best to achieve that.

It’s not enough to just have the right technology and resources – they must be integrated. Otherwise, deliveries won’t be fast enough, will be too expensive, and will be hard to track.

What’s NOT integrated is a supply chain relying upon multiple independent partners, ranging from inbound carriers to parcel deliverers, using seven different IT platforms to track merchandise from end-to-end.

But the answer to achieving a truly integrated supply chain is simpler than it seems.

Rather than relying on a supply chain weakened by hand-offs between unrelated carriers and incompatible technologies, why not just create one interconnected supply chain using one partner and a single unifying technology platform from end-to-end. It’s the e-commerce logistics solution every e-tailer wishes for, and it’s being fulfilled in Maersk E-Commerce Logistics.

Maersk North America brought together the technology and resources to move products from manufacturers around the world to the doorsteps of consumers across the U.S. using one technology platform, and one very connected team.

The result? Real-time visibility and agility across the country, the globe and your supply chain.

The move supports Maersk’s global mission offering integrated logistics solutions that connect, protect and simplify customers’ supply chains by joining the reach and robustness of Visible SCM’s operations with Maersk’s E-Commerce Logistics division.

“Maersk E-Commerce Logistics is the one partner that can provide customers a first- and middle-mile play where we pick up product from a customer’s dock and move it through the middle mile to the carrier’s trailer for the final mile,” explains Evan Adams, Head of E-Commerce Logistics, North America for Maersk.

As a result, Maersk E-Commerce Logistics can provide a fully transparent end-to-end solution that allows businesses to see and change the course of their shipments through every step of the supply chain.

Now, with the help of Maersk, any size company can leverage world-class integration and visibility to seamlessly provide goods to customers at their doorstep, to a locker or at a brick-and-mortar store.

Maersk easily integrates with any sales channel through unrivaled direct-to-consumer resources that support a brand’s inventory and delivery needs in any geography.

Recently acquired assets in direct-to-consumer fulfillment connect e-tailers directly to a world-class distribution network. Eight warehouses are positioned across shipping zones and allow customers to efficiently reach 99% of the U.S. population within two days with 99.8% order accuracy.

For global companies, or aspiring global companies, Maersk brings international freight brokerage expertise and unrivaled connections to transportation modes, including thousands of inland carriers and relationships with every air cargo transporter and seaport in the world.

It absorbs rich, streaming information on every inbound shipment, product in stock and package being processed or delivered throughout the supply chain. It then uses that data to map out the best way to get product to customer—whether that’s a store, a home or a warehouse.

According to Pooja Nagpal, the Chief Commercial Officer of Maersk E-Commerce Logistics, “We can do so much amazing analysis around the data to determine what facilities customers should locate inventory in, which inventory to put in and which parcel carrier provides the best rate and speed.”

The combination of analytics, reporting and visibility that the system provides reveals powerful insights. “The visibility it provides is especially important for e-commerce companies in hypergrowth because it helps them scale up and down with very short notice to respond to surges in orders,” Adams adds.

Leverage Better Contract Rates with Parcel Carriers.

Final mile delivery makes up 65% of the cost to serve in e-commerce logistics, Herman says.

Maersk E-Commerce Logistics provides shippers with a competitive advantage in the final mile. Shippers benefit from bulk contract rates with all leading parcel carriers.

A multi-carrier strategy, like this, where the best rate and service is selected from multiple parcel carriers, is a must for e-tailers – but it requires the right technology.

In warehouses operated by Maersk E-Commerce Logistics, automated systems use application programing interfaces (APIs) to get the best rates and service levels instantly as parcels travel along conveyors.

According to Adams, “We are able to utilize the right carrier at the right volume density in every case. The benefit might be a cheaper price or faster delivery. Or it might be an opportunity to zone skip by collecting a customer’s volume close to the places they’re delivering to.”

You Need a Supply Chain with Resilience and Agility

These days e-tailers can’t wait until they’re grown up to create supply chains that circumvent disruption. Failing to deliver the season or a surge in orders is the death of brands. E-tailers need supply chain-wide agility to anticipate delays and address them at any stage from manufacturing to the final mile.

With Maersk E-Commerce Logistics, e-tailers can mitigate disruption through visibility that tracks goods from factory to vessel to warehouse to end customer. “Companies can sense the first sign of trouble and react before it’s too late,” Adams says.

For customers, having a variety of transport modes provides them with flexibility and builds resilience into their supply chains. “An integrated approach to logistics gives companies the ability to pivot to alternate solutions like air,” Adams explains.

Reducing the number of partners and touchpoints and hand-offs in the supply chain through integration reduces complexity and risk, Adams points out. “It gives companies the ability to speed up, slow down and change supply chain plans rapidly.”

Maersk E-Commerce Logistics helps e-tailers of all sizes to level the playing field by leveraging Maersk’s outstanding bulk contract shipping rates from parcel carriers. “Customers from the smallest micro e-commerce businesses to the million-parcel companies benefit from our excellent carrier relationships,” Adams says.

Under the Maersk E-Commerce Logistics umbrella, customers gain strong carrier relationships that help insulate them from carrier caps and that control accessorials and surcharges. Customers also leverage Maersk E-Commerce Logistics’ ability to garner high service levels which support e-tailer’s customer service standards.

Pivot Transportation Modes to Take Advantage of Opportunities

Because of the potential for wide swings in consumer demand as well as disruptions, retailers’ delivery and fulfillment capabilities have to be as dynamic as online shoppers themselves. Retailers need to be able to tailor optimal solutions on the fly based on where they sell, the products they sell, how they store them, how they fulfill them and how they deliver them.

The Maersk E-Commerce Logistics network gives shippers a natural ability to toggle gracefully between ocean, air, rail and truck. An agnostic delivery model ensures that all your parcel delivery needs are met. Access to all the major last-mile carriers even makes cross-border shipping easier and cheaper.

Maersk E-Commerce Logistics provides the transportation options for delivering an outstanding customer experience that supports growth and success in today’s ever-changing, omni-channel world.

Connect Every Sales Channel with an Integrated Supply Chain

Making pivots to a new sales channel like an online store or a brick-and-mortar retailer can be complex. Maersk E-Commerce Logistics provides a centralized platform that provides visibility across channels and enables a unified strategy.

With Maersk E-Commerce Logistics, changes occur within a familiar ecosystem. Maersk E-Commerce Logistics’ all-encompassing IT Platform creates the optimal conditions for channel growth – and outstanding customer experiences wherever customers may be.