Wuunder opens City Fulfilment Centres to speed up parcel deliveries

In late September, transport management service Wuunder announced that it is opening City Fulfilment Centres: local warehouses that deliver online orders to customers within one to four hours. According to Wuunder, which provides e-fulfilment support to retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers in the Benelux region and also in Germany, it is the first company of its kind in the Netherlands to use this approach to parcel deliveries.

Wuunder claims that using the stock both from brick-and-mortar stores and from the Wuunder City Fulfilment Centres to supply orders within certain postcode areas enables parcels to be delivered faster. This increases the guarantee of on-time delivery – which customers are willing to pay extra for – and reduces the likelihood of returns. The company adds that there is less risk of damaged goods because the orders do not have to travel on conveyors through multiple sorting centres. Moreover, the orders do not need to be packed in an outer box, which is cost effective.

Wuunder delivers the parcels using eco-friendly modes of transport such as bicycles or electric vans. Thanks to the use of bicycle couriers and the reduction in packaging materials, the City Fulfilment Centres can reduce carbon emissions by 17 to 25%, according to research by Accenture.

Algorithms

Wuunder has developed its own algorithm to manage the inventory in the local warehouses based on which products are popular in each specific area. This optimizes the inventory planning and relieves retailers of the responsibility for determining which stock should be held where. Delivery times and costs can be displayed dynamically since the shopping baskets at web shop checkouts are directly connected to the local stock situation. If a customer is not located in an area covered by the City Fulfilment Centres, traditional parcel carriers will be used.

The kinds of products delivered from the City Fulfilment Centres are ones that people tend to want as soon as possible or need for repairs, such as smartphones, one-day-only special offers, rented tools and spare parts.