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Enjoy end-to-end retail consolidation
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Reduce retail compliance costs & penalties
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Meet your commitments to retailers
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Get completely integrated retail logistics
Enjoy end-to-end retail consolidation
GEODIS manages retail consolidation across incoming shipments, consolidation operations, and final delivery. We will:
- Pick up or receive your products from a distribution center or other location
- Scan your shipments and bring them into our consolidation centers
- Manage your freight and assign it to outbound lanes for each retailer
- Schedule delivery appointments with each retailer
- Load outbound trucks and complete compliance audits
- Send original shipper paperwork to the retailer
- Deliver freight to retail distribution centers and stores
- Report on all key metrics and KPIs
Reduce retail compliance costs & penalties
GEODIS reduces any fines or penalties related to retail compliance, including:
- Late delivery, inaccurate dock scheduling, or missed appointments
- Inaccurate or delayed Advanced Shipping Notice (ASN) transmission
- Missing your on-time in-full commitments
- Incorrectly packaged goods that don't meet retailer needs
- Damage to your freight or pallets
- Paperwork discrepancies
- Any other breaches of retailer requirements
Our retailer compliance audits help our carriers and clients to lower or eliminate compliance fines.
Meet your commitments to retailers
GEODIS takes your retailer commitments as seriously as you do. We'll ensure you meet requirements across multiple areas:
- Understand changing requirements and regulations from retailers
- Create and manage retail optimization and consolidation plans for all major retailers
- Transmit all of your paperwork on time, including Advanced Shipping Notices (ASN)
- Maximize your on-time in-full (OTIF) performance
- Improve Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with retailers
- Use a retailer's preferred carriers, where needed
- Repackaging shipments and products into a retailer's preferred packaging
- Schedule realistic delivery slots and dock access
- Reduce risk and stabilize your supply chain
Get completely integrated retail logistics
GEODIS provides complete, end-to-end FMCG and retail logistics offerings. We'll integrate your retail consolidation with our other 3PL and 4PL services:
- Transport services including air freight, ocean freight, ground transportation, multimodal transport, and capacity solutions
- Freight solutions including supply chain management, customs, foreign trade, and project logistics
- Warehousing including inbound logistics, fulfillment, value-added services, omnichannel, and reverse logistics
- A campus network of almost 200 facilities across the Americas, together with shared resources, labor, equipment, and systems
- Industry verticals expertise including fast-moving consumer goods and retail logistics
- Complete systems integration across warehouse management, transportation management, and yard management systems
- Real-time reporting, metrics, and performance tracking via our visibility portal
Features of GEODIS retail consolidation services
Frequently asked questions
Retail consolidation is a service where products are received from multiple suppliers and manufacturers, normally as part of a Less-than-Truckload (LTL) shipment. A consolidator will bundle these shipments together and create one or more Full-Truckload (FTL) shipments for a particular retail customer. These large retail customers are often household brands like Walmart, Target, CVS, Amazon, Kroger, or Walgreens.
Retail consolidation services help to reduce costs and eliminate retailer fines. We reduce costs by minimizing the amount of trucks and drivers needed to transport goods from warehouses to retail stores and distribution centers. We eliminate fines through complying with strict retailer guidelines, as many larger retailers will penalize companies that deliver too many shipments, are late for their delivery slots, or do not meet their standards.
Consolidated shipping is the approach that logistics providers use to bundle multiple orders and products into one shipment. Consolidated shipping can be used for any form of freight, such as ocean freight, air freight, rail, or ground transportation. Retail consolidation primarily focuses on ground transportation and trucking, specifically for delivery to retailers.
There are two main types of truckloads - Less-Than-Truckload, or LTL - and Full Truckload, or FTL. LTL consolidation involves receiving goods from a particular brand on a truck that's not full - an LTL shipment. We then bundle LTL shipments from two or more trucks or brands into one full truckload, or FTL. Our carriers will then deliver that FTL to a retailer. Consolidating LTLs into FTLs helps you to reduce costs, lower emissions, speed up shipping, and meet retailer requirements.
Different retailers have varying consolidation needs, including:
- The proper transmission of paperwork at the right time in the order fulfillment and delivery process
- Receiving the right number of products at the right time (delivery on-time in-full)
- Having products shipped by their preferred carriers
- Ensuring the quality and freshness of the products they receive
- Insisting that products be packaged according to their specifications
GEODIS helps brands achieve this through several approaches:
- Maintaining strong relationships with wholesalers and retailers
- Keeping up to date with retail consolidation trends and changes
- Developing standard operating processes and compliance guidelines for each retailer
- Completing compliance audits on shipments before they're sent to retailers
- Tracking products through every part of their journey
- Reviewing any issues with product transport, receipt, compliance breaches, or fines
- Resolving the root causes of any retail consolidation issues
On-Time, In-Full (OTIF), is a target and metric that measures the percentage of orders successfully fulfilled, in terms of delivery time and product quantity. Specifically:
- Products arrive at the retailer at the scheduled delivery time (on-time)
- The number of products expected successfully arrive at the retailer (in-full)
Retailers will often penalize businesses if products arrive early or late (not "on-time") or if there are more or fewer items delivered than expected (not "in-full"). OTIF is used throughout the supply chain whenever goods are transported and delivered between suppliers, manufacturers, retailers, and consumers. GEODIS regularly achieves an OTIF rate of 98% or more.
We currently offer RCS programs for the following major retailers:
- Amazon
- Albertsons
- Cardinal Health
- CVS
- Dollar General
- Family Dollar
- HEB
- Kroger
- Meijer
- Rite Aid
- Safeway
- Target
- Walgreens
- Walmart
- West Coast Pool
