Omnichannel logistics

Distribution & Retail

In European retail, the boundary between stores and e-commerce is fading: more than one in three online purchases is already picked up in-store or at a pickup point, and click-and-collect accounts for over 15% of sales in the UK in 2023—almost double the pre-Covid level. This hybrid model complicates fulfillment, increases returns (nearly 30% of fashion orders are sent back) and pushes retailers to deliver ever faster: 64% of European consumers now expect real-time tracking for every parcel.

Fox4Work^TM meets these requirements by unifying inventory, automating picking and streamlining reverse logistics—all supported by retail-specific real-time KPIs.

Your challenges

Key challenges in distribution logistics

Challenge #1

Omnichannel volatility

Online peaks (Black Friday, sales) can multiply volumes by four while stores still need to be supplied; without orchestration, stockouts can cost up to 4% of annual revenue.

Challenge #2

Speed & customer promise

In Europe, 55% of online shoppers abandon their cart if delivery takes more than 48 hours; order preparation therefore has to shift to “same-day” while also supporting in-store sales.

Challenge #3

Returns tsunami

Return rates reach 30% in fashion, generating an additional logistics cost of €10 per processed parcel. Receiving, sorting and reconditioning without blocking flows becomes critical.

Challenge #4

Shrinkage & stockouts

Between theft and errors, unknown shrinkage accounts for 1.4% of EU retail turnover; conversely, each stockout results in a loss of 3.2% of potential sales. Unified visibility and alerts are essential.

Without an omnichannel WMS, web peaks, mass returns and shelf stockouts turn into hidden costs, eroding margins and customer loyalty.

Our industry solution “Distribution”

Unified inventory, omnichannel picking & express returns

In Fox4Work^TM, each item—whether destined for a store, a web order or a pickup point—exists only once: inventory is shared in real time across the warehouse, the sales floor and e-commerce. This single view feeds an orchestration engine that launches mixed picking waves (store replenishment + web orders) without double handling, reduces operator travel distances by 25% thanks to dynamic slotting and zone picking, processes 85% of returns in under 24 hours via a tablet workflow that qualifies, restocks or triggers refurbishment, and finally updates more than 50 retail KPIs (OTIF, return rate, shelf availability, abandoned carts) to act before stockouts or dock congestion. The result: truly omnichannel logistics, able to absorb Black Friday peaks without overstaffing, meet a 24/48-hour promise and protect margin on every sale.

Unified stock view – 99% reliability

Each barcode or RFID scan is time-stamped and synchronized across store, warehouse and e-commerce: sellable stock is updated in under 1 second; pilot sites reduced inventory discrepancies by 92% and increased shelf availability by 3 points.

Omnichannel wave & zone picking

Fox4Work^TM automatically groups web orders, click-and-collect and store replenishment; dynamic slotting places best-sellers in “hot zones”. Result: –25% operator travel distance and +30% order lines picked per hour, measured at a Benelux textile distributor.

Integrated reverse logistics

At the returns gate, a tablet-based workflow qualifies the item (resale, repackaging, repair). 85% of returns are restocked within 24 hours (versus 48–72 hours previously), halving product depreciation and saving €2 per reconditioned parcel according to a French footwear player.

KPI cockpit & peak forecasting

A live dashboard tracks OTIF, return rates and average basket value, and provides alerts such as “imminent stockout” or “increase in web traffic.” Equipped retailers have reduced promotional losses by 18% and improved delivery OTIF to 97%.

Fox4Work^TM turns the retail warehouse into an agile omnichannel platform: a reliable single stock view, faster picking, smoother returns and actionable indicators—the winning combination to ship faster, sell more and protect margins.

Our clients

Distribution sector

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Learn more

The 4 key challenges a WMS must address

Whether it is an e-commerce hub or an industrial platform, four challenges now dominate logistical performance: maintaining a reliable inventory to avoid stockouts and overstocking, accelerating order picking—which absorbs up to 70% of warehouse labor—smoothing out receiving and shipping to reduce truck dwell time (frequently exceeding two hours), and guaranteeing exhaustive traceability capable of reaching 99% accuracy through the barcode/RFID pairing.

A WMS like Fox4Work tackles these four areas head-on: real-time visibility for every SKU, dynamic slotting and batch picking to eliminate unnecessary travel, dock scheduling and directed put-away to relieve docks, and time-stamped audit logs with live KPIs to move from annual inventories to continuous control.

Discover how Fox4Work addresses each of these challenges—and why mastering them determines a warehouse’s profitability.

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