Professional cross docking for ecommerce

Cross docking transport for ecommerce and traditional businesses. Reduce your transportation costs with us.

We offer a comprehensive cross-docking service that enables fast order consolidation and processing. Our solutions are perfectly tailored to both e-commerce companies and large retail networks, helping to minimize costs and accelerate order fulfillment.

Why choose cur cross docking service?

Our advanced technologies and strong relationships with suppliers ensure seamless logistics operations. This allows us to shorten delivery times and reduce warehousing costs. As part of our cross-docking service, we offer:

Flexible deliveries

Quick consolidation of orders in one location.

Reduced warehousing costs

Through direct transport of goods from point A to point B.

Close collaboration with suppliers

Ensuring better synchronization of deliveries.

Europe and UK

Cross-docking transport service to and from all of Europe and the UK.

Our logistics expertise

Advanced cross-docking requires the knowledge and infrastructure we possess. We provide solutions based on efficient inventory management, advanced picking systems, and real-time tracking of goods. This ensures smooth order handling without delays.

Inventory management

Optimizing product availability to speed up processes.

Efficient picking

Precise order fulfillment at the right time.

Tracking goods movement

Full control over shipments through modern technology.

Cross-docking for retail networks

We offer cross-docking services to and from all of Europe and the UK. Our solutions are ideal for both the e-commerce sector and large retail chains that require delivery flexibility and effective optimization of logistics processes.

Cross docking for ecommerce

Cross docking is a logistics system that consolidates small deliveries from various suppliers into one shipment directed to a single destination. However, the rise of e-commerce has forced logistics to adapt to serve this new type of customer.

E-commerce has brought significant changes to logistics—some might even call it a revolution. The primary challenge now lies in managing costs. Previously, logistics made up only 2-3% of sales value, meaning there was little incentive to cut expenses. The focus was on maintaining product availability and minimizing errors. Priorities revolved around maximizing warehouse space efficiency through high-bay storage and WMS systems that optimized storage utilization. E-commerce has drastically altered this landscape.

New logistics challenges in the e-commerce era

Today, logistics can account for as much as one-third (or more) of total costs. This increase is largely due to the fact that, unlike traditional retail, the end customer in e-commerce is unwilling to bear the last-mile delivery costs. Instead of transporting large quantities of goods to a few recipients, logistics now involves delivering numerous small packages to a wide range of dispersed customers—many of whom are one-time buyers, rendering streamlining efforts futile. The cost priority has shifted from optimizing space utilization to shortening processes and reducing labor intensity.

Cross docking transport

Cross docking for ecommerce

Logistics has responded to these changes by operating with very low inventory levels, often delivering products that aren’t yet in stock. E-commerce capitalizes on the fact that customers expect delivery delays, even if sellers claim products are immediately available. This creates logistical challenges.

For logistics processes, this presents entirely new challenges. It requires combining newly arrived stock with items already picked from shelves. Sometimes, products that have just arrived must be paired with those still on hand. In some cases, a single order might consist of goods from several sources and deliveries.

Low inventory means a lack of buffer for unforeseen events and often involves managing goods that have yet to enter the logistics system. This leads to a new form of cross-docking, where shipments combine available inventory with products that have just been ordered and are en route.

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Operational challenges in cross docking for e-commerce

The process occurs on the dock—an area bustling with activity, prone to errors, and often short on space. This disrupts otherwise well-ordered logistics processes. Part of the order is picked from shelves (picking locations), while the rest must wait until it’s delivered by the supplier. Cross docking procedures, which consolidate shipments from various sources, offer a solution to this issue.

If an online store manages its own logistics, it can get by—albeit at a high cost (which is often overlooked) and with great effort (which is keenly felt). However, as sales and delivery volumes increase, along with the number of suppliers, manual handling must eventually give way to automation.

There are very few fulfillment operators on the market who can systematically offer such a transport model. This requires highly specific resources and skills:

  1. Appropriate unloading and loading infrastructure: This means having a large docking area, spacious and well-marked staging areas integrated with the packing location.
  2. Experience in combining various products from different sources into one order: This requires precise procedures, experience in applying them, and strict discipline.
  3. A dedicated IT system: This system must be able to order goods at the right time and arrange appropriate transport, including specific capacity and precise unloading times. It must also handle hundreds or even thousands of simultaneous orders without confusion. A standard WMS system would not suffice, as it manages warehouse space, not the coordination of orders and deliveries.
  4. Close collaboration between warehouses and transport companies: Deliveries must be tightly coordinated, from order placement to arrival. Otherwise, either the shipment waits for the delivery, or the delivery waits at the dock for the rest of the order to be picked from the shelves.

All of this can be managed by a fulfillment provider integrated with a warehouse that has experience in cross docking and logistics.

Who benefits from cross docking?

Cross-docking is particularly useful for companies with the following characteristics:

  • High shipment volume: Companies handling large volumes of goods can use cross docking to accelerate the flow of products. However, high volume isn’t the goal, but a necessary condition. The real benefits emerge when many small product streams from different suppliers are consolidated. Cross docking works best for companies with large goods flows from multiple, often small, suppliers.
  • E-commerce businesses: Online stores frequently use this method to quickly deliver orders to customers. Cross docking in e-commerce primarily involves consolidating deliveries from different suppliers, yet ordered in a single transaction by one customer. This is still cross docking, but it introduces new process challenges, especially for the IT system, which must systematically integrate and consolidate various delivery sources.
  • Distributors and manufacturers: Cross docking simplifies the delivery of goods to different distribution points. However, it replaces costly deliveries of small batches, known in logistics as partial loads.
  • Companies with limited warehouse resources: With cross docking, there’s no need to store large amounts of goods in warehouses. On the other hand, it requires a large docking area and numerous loading docks, meaning what is saved on storage might be lost on operational space. To truly save, goods must rotate quickly in cross docking, which in turn demands substantial product flow.
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