Black Friday ready

This weekend’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday extravaganza is set to hit record sales as Australians hunt for bargains.

The weekend will make up more than a quarter of holiday purchases – hitting $6.36 billion, according to the Australian Retailers Association (ARA).

Accounting for more than a quarter of all holiday purchases in 2023, shopping traffic is up by 5 per cent year-on-year.

Findings from Salesforce, released by the ARA, show 29 per cent of online orders are tipped to be influenced by artificial intelligence (AI).

Retailers are deploying AI tools to enhance customer experience.

Digital transformation

KNAPP Australia has helped many companies automate their distribution centres across Australia.

Partnering up with L’Oréal, Metcash, Catch, Woolworths, Australian Pharmaceutical Industries (API) and Sigma, we’ve designed systems fit for purpose, allowing efficiency and flexibility within their systems.

“When designing a system we consider a peak factor,” KNAPP Australia Business Development Manager Tiago Oliveira says.

“This means that even when stressed during these busy periods, our solution is able to cope with the seasonal influx of orders, assisting our clients to get their orders in time.

“By designing systems that are fit for purpose for each project, we ensure our clients always have the max efficiency and flexibility within their systems,” he adds.

“This reduces capital expenditure and optimizes the operating expenses based on the level of automation desired."

As Black Friday becomes the more dominant sales day, we at KNAPP look for innovative ways to adjust our solutions to better cope with new challenges faced by today’s industry.

“We have our service technicians on most of our projects who go through regular cycles of predictive maintenance so the system is available as much as possible,” Oliveira says.

“These predictive maintenance cycles are planned to cope with busy periods such as Black Friday and Boxing Day.”

Digital transformation within the supply chain industry has been accelerated as a result of the pandemic, with many companies including L’Oréal undergoing impactful changes.

KNAPP Australia has installed a OSR Shuttle Evo storage solution equipped with Pick it Easy picking stations at L’Oréal Melbourne distribution centre, operating 24/7.

Our picking stations has seen L’Oréal process, sort and dispatch orders more quickly and efficiently.